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GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN     MEYER  ELSASSER 

DR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 

JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.  SARTORI 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


A  SUMMER  VISIT  OF  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS  TO 
THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  IN  KJol 


"Uniform  witb  tbis  Uolumc 

Maky  Dyee  or  Rhode  Island,  the  Qiaker  Martyr 


I'  n  G  E     H  < )  R  A  T  I  O     R  O  G  E  K  ! 


A   SUMMER  VISIT 

OF 

THREE    RHODE    ISLANDERS 

TO   THE 

MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  IN  1651 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  VISIT  OF  DR.  JOHN  CLARKE, 
OBADIAH  HOLMES  AND  JOHN  CRANDALL,  MEMBERS 
OF  THE  BAPTIST  CHURCH  IN  NEWPORT.  R.  L.  TO 
WILLIAM  WITTER  OF  SWAMPSCOTT,  MASS.,  IN  JULY, 
1651  :  ITS  INNOCENT  PURPOSE  AND  ITS  PAINFUL 
CONSEQUENCES 


^    BY 

HENKY  MELVILLE  KING 

PASTOR  OF  THE   FIR^T   BAPTIST  CHURCH,   PROVIDENCE,   K. 


PROVIDENCE 

PRESTON    AND    ROUNDS 

1896 


90127 


Copyright.  1896 
By    henry    MELVILLE    KING 


ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


PRESS   OF 
E.  L.  FREEMAN   &   SONS,    PROVIDENCE.  11.   I. 


PREFACE 

The  substance  of  tliis  paper  was  presented 
at  tlie  midwinter  meeting  of  the  Backus  His- 
torical Society,  held  in  Boston,  Dec.  8,  1879. 
It  was  published  (Boston,  1880),  by  vote  of 
the  Society,  under  the  general  title — "  Early 
Baptists  Defended,  a  Re^dew  of  Dr.  Henry 
M.  Dexter's  Account  of  the  Visit  to  William 
Witter  in  'As  to  Roger  WilHams.'"     It  has 
been  quoted  frequently  as  an  authority  in 
CO      reference  to  the  historical  incident  which  it 
Oi      discusses.     Dr.  Dexter  found  a  copy  of  it  in 
the   Library  of   the   British  Museum.     For 
g      several  years  it  has  been  out  of  print,  and 
©      the  demand  for  it,  on  the  part  of  the  increas- 
fe       ing  number  of  students  of  colonial  history, 
could  not  be  met. 

The  history  of  the  visit  has  been  carefully 

re-examined,  and  the  paper  has  been  consid- 

^    erably  lengthened  by  the  addition  of   new 


VI  PREFACE 

matter,  and  made  to  include  a  consideration 
of  the  incident  as  symptomatic  of  the  Puritan 
spirit,  and  as  shedding  light  upon  the  cause 
of  the  banishment  of  Eoger  AVilliams  —  a 
question  ^vhich  a  few  writers  and  speakers 
are  not  willing  to  allow  to  remain  settled. 
The  recent  discovery  of  incontrovertible  doc- 
umentary evidence  will  confirm  the  belief 
that  has  been  generally  held  as  to  the  re- 
ligious nature  of  Williams'  offence,  and  ought 
to  be  able  to  remove  all  doubts  from  all 
minds. 

This  x^aper  was  read,  in  its  enlarged  form, 
before  the  Ehode  Island  Historical  Society 
at  its  meeting,  March  5,  1895,  and  before  the 
Veteran  Citizens  Historical  Association  of 
Providence,  April  11,  1895. 


A  Summer  Visit 

OF  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS  TO  THE 
MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  IN  1651. 

The  memorable  visit  of  13r.  John 
Clarke,  Obadiali  Holmes  and  John  Cran- 
dall,  meml>ers  of  the  Baptist  church  in 
Newport,  to  AYilliam  Witter,  one  of  the 
early  settlers  in  the  Massac liu setts  Bay, 
took  place  in  July,  1651.  It  is  proposed 
in  this  paper  to  review  the  history  of 
that  visit,  that  Ave  may  ascertain,  if  pos- 
sible, the  object  of  it,  the  alleged  crim- 
inal conduct  of  which  these  troublesome 
visitors  were  guilty,  and  the  severity  of 
the  punishment  which  they  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  Puritan  magistrates. 


8  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

Tliis  service  Las  been  undertaken  solely 
ill  tlie  interests  of  historic  truth,  and  not 
in  the  spirit  of  a  partizan  or  a  controver- 
sialist. A  difference  of  opinion  having 
1  )een  manifested  of  late  in  high  quarters, 
and  views  put  forward  in  opposition  to 
those  which  had  been  universally  held, 
it  seems  desiral)le  that  there  should  be 
a  thorough  and  candid  re-examination  of 
the  facts  in  the  case  Avhich  are  accessible. 
When  such  historians  as  Dr.  J.  G.  Pal- 
frcA'  (  "History  of  Xew  Eno-land'')  and 
Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter  (  "  As  to  Eoger  AVil- 
liams")  who  follows  Dr.  Palfrey  closely 
and  even  outstrips  him  in  the  positive- 
ness  of  his  convictions,  call  in  question 
accepted  opinions  in  matters  of  colonial 
history,  it  is  due  that  those  opinions  be 
reviewed  in  the  light  of  all  the  evidence, 
old  and  ne^v,  that  can  be  presented.  . 
A  high  regard  for  the  many  sterling 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  9 

(|iialities  of  our  Puritan  ancestors,  and 
admiration  and  crratitude  for  the  noble 
.service  \vliicli  the}'  rendered,  and  the  in- 
estimable benefits  of  which  ^ve  are  en- 
joying, make  us  desirous  to  judge  them 
fairly  in  all  things,  and  even  charitably 
where  they  were  undoubtedly  in  error. 
We  certainly  would  not  misjudge  their 
spirit  or  their  acts,  and  if  any  false  judg- 
ments have  come  down  to  us,  transmitted 
through  ignorance  or  prejudice,  it  is  high 
time  they  Avere  abandoned.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  sacred  regard  for  the  truth  of  his- 
tory should  keep  us  from  any  disposition 
to  conceal  the  errors  of  the  Puritans  or 
to  extenuate  their  sins.  Great  and  good 
as  they  \vere,  they  were  not  perfect ;  and 
he  who  undertakes  to  justify  all  the  acts 
of  his  fathers,  natural  or  denominational, 
Avill  iind  himself  ])urdened  with  a  grave 
responsibility. 


10  THREE   KHODE   ISLAKDERS 

It  should  be  remembered  that  we  are 
dealing  ^vith  events  nearly  t^vo  centuries 
and  a  half  old,  when  truths  now  well 
developed,  full  grown  and  generally  ac- 
cepted, were  in  their  infancy  and  ac- 
kno^vledged  by  few.  We  should  be 
careful  lest  we  unconsciously  carry  back 
to  that  early  period  of  our  history  the 
standard  of  to-day,  and  measure  events 
which  occurred  then  l)y  the  fuller  wis- 
dom which  we  now  possess.  We  should 
l)e  no  less  careful  lest,  fororettino^  the 
growth  and  advancement  that  have  been 
made,  we  seek  to  bring  past  events  into 
closer  harmony  with  present  views  and 
wishes  than  the  facts  will  Avarrant.  The 
duty  of  the  historian  is  simply  to  write 
history,  not  to  modify  it  or  make  it  aj)- 
pear  different  from  what  it  is.  The  truth 
may  be  judged  charitably ;  but  the  truth 
is  historv,  and  nothino^  else  is. 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  11 

Let  118  consider,  first,  Avliat  was  the 
(►bject  of  the  visit  whicli  Clarke,  Holmes 
and  Crandall,  members  of  the  Ba})tist 
church  in  Newport,  made  to  AMlliam 
Witter,  a  farmer  residing  in  Swamps- 
cott,  about  two  miles  from  L^nn  proper. 
Backus  introduces  the  account  of  this 
visit  with  the  fol]o\N  ing  statement  (^'His- 
tory of  the  Baptists,"  Vol.  I,  178)  :  "On 
July  U),  1(^51,  Messrs.  Clarke,  Holmes 
and  Crandal,  '  being  the  representatives 
of  the  church  in  Newport,  upon  the  re- 
([uestof  William  Witter  of  Lynn  arrived 
there,  he  being  a  brother  in  the  church 
who,  by  reason  of  his  advanced  age, 
could  not  undertake  so  great  a  journey 
as  to  visit  the  church.' "  Backus  given 
as  his  authority  the  NcAvport  church 
papers,  fro^n  Avhich  the  statement  is  a 
quotation.  Arnold  says  in  similar  lan- 
guage ('' History  of  Rhode  Island,"  VoL 


12  THREE   EHODE   ISLAXDERS 

I.,  234):  "They  were  deputed  by  the 
churcli  to  visit  au  aged  niem1)er,  residing 
near  Lyun,  who  had  requested  an  inter- 
view with  some  of  his  brethren."  From 
these  statements  it  appears  that  the  visit 
was  one  of  Christian  sympathy,  the  pastor 
and  t^vo  other  members  of  the  churcli, 
with  its  kno^vledge  and  consent,  making 
the  journey  to  carry  comfort  to  the  heart 
of  an  aged  and  infirm  brother,  who,  as 
^ve  learn  elsewhere  ("History  of  Lynn," 
by  Lewis  and  Xewhall),  had  already 
l:)een  arrested  t^^^ce  for  expressing,  in 
the  emphatic  language  of  the  times,  his 
o[)inion  against  infant  baptism,  and  who, 
depiived  of  the  privileges  of  the  church 
and  of  the  sympathy  of  those  whose 
faith  was  in  accord  with  his  own,  had 
requested  this  intervicAv.  This  view  has 
been  uniformly  accepted  as  explaining 
the  innocent,  humane,  religious  purpose 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  13 

of  the  visit.  We  have  no  statement 
from  either  of  the  three  visitors  which 
sheds  any  further  light  on  the  matter. 
In  the  letter  of  Mr.  Holmes  to  John 
Spilsbury,  William  Kiifen  and  other 
brethren  in  London,  incorporated  by 
Clarke  in  his  "111  Newes  from  New 
England"  (Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  Vol.  II., 
Fourth  Series),  he  says :  "  I  came  upon 
occasion  of  businesse  into  the  Colony  of 
the  Mathatusets,  mth  two  other  Breth- 
ren." If  they  were  deputed  by  the 
church  to  make  this  visit,  this  is  all 
the  explanation  the  language  requires ; 
this  was  the  "  occasion  of  businesse " 
which  took  them  to  Swampscott. 

In  opposition  to  the  prevalent  view, — 
a  view  which  seems  to  be  supported  by 
incontrovertible  authority, — Dr.  Palfrey 
has  suggested  that  the  visit  had  a  very 
•shrewd  political  purpose,  and  was  care- 


14  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

fully  planned  to  that  end ;  that  o^Aing 
to  local  disagreements  in  the  Pro^ddence 
Plantations,  and  the  supposed  fear  of 
Clarke  and  his  friends  that  an  attempt 
was  about  to  be  made  to  unite  Newport 
and  Portsmouth  to  the  colonial  confed- 
eracy, or  possibly  to  annex  them  to  the 
Massachusetts  Bay,  it  Avas  detennined 
to  prevent  such  a  union ;  and  this  method 
Avas  deliberately  chosen  to  call  forth  an 
exhibition  of  the  persecuting  spirit  of  the 
authorities  of  the  Bay,  that  the  breach 
mio^ht  be  widened  and  the  suspected  de- 
signs of  those  who  were  thought  to  be 
laboring  for  the  annexation,  might  be 
frustrated. 

It  will  be  necessary  to  sketch  briefly 
the  situation.  William  Coddington,  who 
in  1648  was  elected  the  second  President 
of  the  Providence  Plantations  (though  at 
that  time  certain  charges  were  brought 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  15 

against  him,  the  nature  of  which  is  un- 
known), had  indeed  manifested  a  desire 
for  a  union  with  the  Colonies.  There  is 
much  about  Coddington's  conduct  which 
is  veiled  in  mystery.  He  was  evidently 
a  Avily,  determined,  ambitious  man.  In  a 
letter  of  his  to  Winthrop,  under  date  of 
Aug.  5,  1644,  a  letter  which  Dr.  Palfrey 
calls  "a  curious  letter,"  written,  it  will 
be  noticed,  five  months  after  the  signing 
of  the  charter  given  to  Roger  Williams 
for  the  incorporation  of  the  Providence 
Plantations,  he  said:  "I  desire  to  have 
either  such  alliance  Avith  yourselves  or 
Plymouth,  one  or  both,  as  might  be  safe 
for  us  all,  I  havinof  chief  interest  on  this 
island,  it  being  bought  to  me  and  my 
friends  ;  and  how  convenient  it  miij^lit 
be,  if  it  were  possessed  by  an  enemy, 
lying  in  the  heart  of  the  plantations, 
and   convenient  for  shipping,  I  cannot 


16  THREE   RHODE  ISLANDERS 

but  see ;  but  I  want  both  counsel  and 
strength  to  effect  what  I  desire.  I  de- 
sire to  hear  from  you,  and  that  you 
would  bury  what  I  ^^Tite  in  deep  sil- 
ence :  for  what  I  write  I  never  imparted 
to  any,  nor  would  to  you,  had  I  the  least 
doubt  of  your  faithfulness  that  it  should 
be  uttered  to  my  prejudice."  The  intent 
of  this  letter  is  obvdous.  It  was  written 
about  the  time  the  knowledge  of  the 
charter  to  Roger  Williams  was  received 
in  this  country,  and  one  month  before 
the  second  meeting  of  the  Commission- 
ers of  the  four  Colonies.  It  reveals 
Coddington's  character,  and  his  ambi- 
tious pui^ose.  We  cannot  dwell  up- 
on the  details  of  Coddington's  conduct. 
Four  years  later — in  1648  —  in  another 
letter  to  Winthrop,  he  disclosed  his 
growing  alienation  from  the  people  of 
Providence  and  Warwick.     In  Septem- 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  17 

ber  of  that  year  lie  applied,  in  connec- 
tion witli  Alexander  Partridge,  to  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Colonies  for  a 
union  of  the  Island  with  them.  The 
application  declared  that  it  was  endorsed 
by  "the  major  part  of  our  island"  —  a 
statement  which  ^vas  proved  false  b}' 
subsequent  events.  This  application 
was  refused.  The  Commissioners  were 
unwilling  to  recognize  the  island  as  a 
distinct  colony — the  thing  w^hich  Cod- 
dington  evidently  desired — and  offered 
their  protection  only  on  condition  that 
the  island  should  place  itself  under  the 
government  of  Plymouth  —  the  thing 
which  Coddington  evidently  did  not 
desire.  That  would  have  defeated  his 
ambitious  purpose.  He  declined  the 
proposition ;  and  here  the  matter  ended. 
Four  months  afterward  he  sailed  for 
England,   where  he   remained   at   least 

2* 


18  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

two  years  and  a  lialf.  His  design  in 
going  to  England  lie  succeeded  in  keep- 
ing a  profound  secret.  This  is  acknow- 
ledged hj  all.  The  exact  time  of  his 
return  is  uncertain.  It  was  probable- 
very  soon  after  the  visit  to  Witter.  It 
could  not  have  been  before,  AVhen, 
how^ever,  he  did  return,  it  was  found 
that  he  had  succeeded,  at  the  very  end 
of  his  visit,  in  obtaining  a  "  commission " 
from  the  Council  of  State  to  institute  a 
separate  government  over  the  islands  of 
Rhode  Island  and  Conanicut — thereby 
setting  aside  the  patent  of  the  Provi- 
dence Plantations  given  to  Roger  Wil- 
liams, March  14,  1644.  This  commission 
appointed  Coddington  governor  for  life. 
He  was  to  be  assisted  in  the  government 
by  Councilors,  "not  exceeding  the  num- 
l^er  of  six,"  who  were  to  be  chosen  an- 
nually, but  must  be  approved  by  the 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  19 

governor.  Having  accomplislied  his  am- 
bitious piirj)ose,  and  procured  a  division 
of  the  Providence  Plantations,  and  the 
appointment  of  himself  for  life  as  well- 
nigh  the  supreme  ruler  of  Newport  and 
Portsmouth,  he  arrived  home  possibly  in 
August,  1651. 

This  act  of  Coddington  is  supposed  to 
furnish  the  probable  occasion  of  the  visit 
of  the  three  Newport  worthies  to  Mr. 
Witter,  in  which  they  found  Massachu- 
setts about  as  hot  a  place  as  a  fiery  fur- 
nace heated  to  a  seven-fold  temperature. 

Dr.  Palfrey  says:  "  If  Massachusetts 
was  intolerant  of  Baptists,  and  if  the 
execution  of  Coddington's  scheme  would 
place  the  Rhode  Island  Baptists  more  or 
less  under  her  control,  the  necessity  of 
self-defence  admonished  them  that,  if 
possible,  that  scheme  should  be  defeated. 
Clarke  had  known  for  seven  years  that 


20  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

his  presence  would  not  be  allowed  in 
Massachusetts.  During  that  time  a  law 
had  existed  which  his  presence  would 
affront.  [This  was  the  intolerant  law  of 
16-i4  banishing  all  persons  who  should 
oppose  infant  baptism  or  deny  the  right 
of  the  magistrates  to  punish  the  outward 
breaches  of  the  first  table.]  And  indeed 
seven  years  earlier  yet,  he  had  gone  away 
under  circumstances  ^vhicli  made  it  next 
to  certain  that  had  he  not  departed  vol- 
untarily he  would  have  been  expelled. 
"  Fourteen  years  he  was  content  to 
stay  away  from  Massachusetts  :  in  the 
fifteenth  he  was  prompted  to  go  thither. 
The  considerate  reader  may  see  a  signi- 
ficance in  the  time  of  this  movement. 
The  precise  day  of  Coddington's  arrival 
from  England  Avith  his  'Commission'  is 
not  known ;  but  it  seems  to  have  been 
when   his    arrival   was    expected    from 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  21 

week  to  Aveek,  or  even  from  clay  to 
day,  that  Clarke  undertook  his  journey. 
Clarke  was  a  man  of  influence  and 
authority.  His  personal  character,  his 
sacred  office,  and  his  ne^vly  acquired 
position  of  Assistant  in  the  government, 
placed  him  prominently  before  the  peo- 
ple. He  was  a  man  of  discernment  and 
resolution,  and  felt  no  reluctance  to  ex- 
pose himself  to  personal  inconvenience 
for  the  furtherance  of  what  he  accounted 
a  good  public  object.  And  he  judged 
well  that,  at  this  moment,  some  striking 
practical  evidence  of  the  hostility  of 
Massachusetts  to  Baptists  would  be  effi- 
cacious to  excite  his  Eh  ode  Island  friends 
to  oppose  the  ascendency  of  Coddington. 
"  Clarke  took  mth  him  Uvo  compan- 
ions, one  of  whom,  he  could  promise 
himself,  Avould,  at  the  moment,  he  al- 
most as  unwelcome  a  visitor  as  himself. 


22  THEEE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

John  Crandall  Avas  so  far  a  person  of 
consideration  that  ^ve  find  him  to  have 
sometimes  served  in  the  General  Court 
of  the  Colony  as  Commissioner  (or  Dep- 
uty) for  Newport.  But  Obadiah  Holmes 
was  a  man  of  more  importance.  He  was 
minister  of  the  congregation  which  had 
occasioned  the  application  from  Massa- 
chusetts to  Plymouth;  and  he  had  been 
recently  presented  by  the  Grand  Jury 
of  that  Colony  for  a  disorderly  meeting 
with  others  on  the  Lord's  day.  The 
three  proceeded  together  to  Lynn,  ten 
miles  on  the  further  side  of  Boston." 
Dr.  Palfrey  continues  the  narrative 
with  the  use  of  such  words  and  phrases 
as  ^^  perhaps/'  "  it  may  easily  be  be- 
lieved/' "as  is  probable,"  showing  that 
while  he  regards  his  theoiy  as  probable 
he  does  not  present  it  as  a  fact  capable 
of  proof.     It  is  a  conjecture  of  his  o^^Tl, 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  23 

for  wliicli  he  offers  no  authority  beyond 
what  he  thinks  he  finds  in  the  conjunc- 
tion of  events. 

We  pause  to  point  out  two  or  three 
errors  in  Dr.  Palfrey's  narrative.  He 
says  that  Clarke  left  Massachusetts 
"  under  circumstances  which  made  it 
next  to  certain  that,  had  he  not  de- 
parted voluntarily,  he  would  have  been 
expelled."  This  language  casts  an  un- 
warranted reproach  upon  Clarke  and  his 
conduct,  when  first  in  Massachusetts. 
He  himself  says :  "  In  the  year  '87  1  left 
my  native  land,  and  in  the  ninth  month 
of  the  same,  I,  through  mercy,  arrived  in 
Boston.  I  was  no  sooner  on  shore  but 
there  appeared  to  me  differences  among 
them  touching  the  Covenants  <fec."  He 
goes  on  to  say  that  "  seeing  they  Avere 
not  able  so  to  bear  each  with  other  in 
their  different  understandings  and  con- 


24  THREE  ERODE  ISLANDERS 

sciences,  as  in  those  utmost  parts  of  the 
World  to  live  peaceably  together,"  he 
himself  proposed  "  for  as  much  as  the 
land  was  before  us  and  wide  enough," 
to  seek  out  some  other  place.  Very 
likely  had  this  peace-loving  citizen  re- 
mained in  the  Bay  he  would  have  been 
banished,  even  as  Roger  Williams  and 
a  dozen  others  were  ;  but  no  reproach 
should  be  cast  ujDon  the  record  of  "the 
modest  and  virtuous  Clarke,"  as  Ban- 
croft calls  him,  "  whose  whole  life  was 
a  continued  exercise  of  benevolence," 
and  who  "left  a  name  without  a  spot." 
Having  left  the  Bay  in  order  to  avoid 
strife,  it  seems  utterly  inconsistent  that 
he  should  return  to  the  Bay  in  order  to 
stir  up  strife. 

Moreover,  Dr.  Palfrey  has  fallen  into 
an  error  when,  in  holding  up  Dr.  Clarke's 
conspicuous  character  as  well  calculated 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  25 

to  call  forth  the  religious  hostilities  of 
the  authorities  of  the  Bay,  he  speaks  of 
"his  newly  acquired  position  of  Assis- 
tant in  the  government,"  for  according 
to  the  official  table  given  by  himself 
(i.  e.  Palfrey)  Dr.  Clarke  had  been  an 
Assistant  for  the  two  previous  years, 
but  in  1651  did  not  hold  the  office;  so 
that  what  little  force  this  point  seems 
to  have,  falls  to  the  ground  utterly. 

We  now  turn  to  Dr.  Dexter's  account 
of  this  matter.  He  shows  himself  to  be 
the  more  than  willing  disciple  of  Dr. 
Palfrey.  He  s^^'allo^vs  him  bodily,  con- 
jectures, errors  and  all,  although  the 
palfrey  is  hardly  less  than  a  moderate- 
sized  camel.  In  his  dexterous  treatment 
suppositions  become  established  facts, 
and  conjectures  become  accredited  his- 
tory. Having  alluded  to  the  remon- 
strance   w^hich    the    General    Court    of 


26  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

Massachusetts  sent  to  the  General  Court 
of  Pl}Tnouth  in  regard  to  its  mild  treat- 
ment of  Holmes,  he  proceeds  : 

"  Some  months  before  this,  William 
Coddington,  sick  of  the  unsettled  state 
of  civil  affairs,  which  proved  to  be  the 
result  of  the  unorganized  individualism 
which  was  then  the  key-note  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Plantations  ....  had 
gone  to  England  to  see  if  something 
could  not  be  done  in  the  way  of  remedy. 
He  then  obtained  leave  from  the  Council 
of  State  to  institute  a  separate  govern- 
ment for  the  islands  of  Rhode  Island 
and  Conanicut,  he  to  be  Governor,  vvdth 
a  Council  of  not  more  than  six  Assis- 
tants. In  the  autumn  of  1650  it  was 
understood  that  he  was  on  his  way 
home  with  this  new  instrument ;  and 
it  was  further  understood  that  it  was 
Mr.  Coddington's  desire  and  intention 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  27 

to  bring  about  under  it,  if  possible,  the 
introduction  of  Rhode  Island  into  the 
Confederacy  then  existing  of  the  other 
Colonies,  if  not  absolutely  to  procure 
its  annexation  to  Massachusetts.  .  .  . 
When  the  crisis  approached,  Clarke 
seems  to  have  felt  that  a  little  perse- 
cution of  the  Anabaptists  —  if  such  a 
thing  could  be  managed  —  by  Massa- 
chusetts, might  serve  an  important  pur- 
pose in  prejudicing  the  Rhode  Island 
mind  against  Coddington's  scheme.  An 
occasion  appears  accordingly  to  have 
been  made,  by  ^vhich  the  red  flag  of 
the  Anabaptistical  fanaticism  could  be 
flouted  full  in  the  face  of  the  Bay  bull." 
And  so  Dr.  Dexter  continues  :  "  Knowl- 
edge of  Mr.  Witter's  case  reaching  Mr. 
Clarke,  a  pilgrimage  was  determined 
upon  for  the  purpose  of  public  sympa- 
thy with   this  person,   if   not  his   open 


28  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

rebaptism  and  reception  into  the  New- 
port fellowship.  Such  an  expedition 
had  in  itself  a  promising  look.  It 
would  lead  through  Boston,  yet  not 
far   enough   beyond    it   to   imperil   the 

desired  publicity The  scheme 

succeeded  perfectly/'  etc. 

Dr.  Dexter  represents  the  knowledge 
of  Mr.  Witter's  case  as  reachino'  Dr. 
Clarke  just  at  this  crisis,  as  if  it  was 
a  happy  juncture  of  events.  But  he 
must  have  been  acquainted  with  it  for 
years,  for  it  had  been  eight  years  since 
Mr.  Witter's  first  arraignment  for  hold- 
ing Baptist  views,  and  five  years  since 
his  second  arraignment.  Dr.  Clarke 
could  not  have  remained  uninfoiTaed 
about  it  all  this  time,  inasmuch  as 
Witter  was  a  member  of  the  church 
of  which  he  was  pastor.  Dr.  Dexter 
attempts  to  cover  up  the  real  character 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  29 

of  Mr.  Coddington's  design  by  keeping 
out  of  sight  two  2:)oints,  viz.,  that  he 
secured  in  his  commission  for  himself 
a  life  ap2yointm€nt  as  Governor,  and, 
secondlv,  that  the  election  of  his  Conn- 
cilors  was  not  valid  unless  confirmed  hy 
himself. 

But  the  principal  criticism  upon  this 
quotation  from  Dr.  Dexter  is  to  be  made 
upon  the  very  remarkable  statement  that 
^'In  the  autumn  of  1650  it  was  under- 
stood that  he  (Coddington)  was  on  his 
way  home  with  this  new  instrument ; 
and  it  was  further  understood  that  it 
was  Mr.  Coddington's  desire  and  inten- 
tion to  bring  about  under  it,  if  possible, 
the  introduction  of  Rhode  Island  into 
the  Confederacy  then  existing  of  the 
other  Colonies,  if  not  absolutely  to  pro- 
cure its  annexation  to  Massachusetts." 
It  will  l)e  noticed  tliat  in  this  theory 

3* 


30  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

the  question  of  time  is  a  very  important 
one.  Coddington's  supposed  design  and 
its  successful  accomplishment  must  have 
l)een  understood  sufficiently  early  before 
the  visit  to  Mr.  Witter  to  alloAv  Dr. 
Clarke  and  his  companions  to  mature 
their  plans  as  to  the  best  course  to  be 
pursued.  Dr.  Dexter,  in  his  anxiety  to 
give  time  enough,  says  it  ^vas  under- 
stood that  Coddington  was  on  his  way 
home  with  his  Commission  "  in  the 
autumn  of  1650."  Now,  it  so  ha]3pens 
that  this  was  at  least  six  months  before 
the  Commission  was  given.  Codding- 
ton, whose  purj^ose  in  visiting  England, 
it  will  be  remembered,  he  had  kej^t  a 
profound  secret,  must  have  reached  there 
soon  after  the  execution  of  Charles  I. 
and  the  do^^^lfall  of  the  British  mon- 
archy. The  Council  of  State  under  the 
Commonwealth   held   its  fii'st   meeting. 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  31 

Feb.  17,  1649,  in  tlie  third  week  after 
the  beheading  of  the  king.  Such  were 
the  agitations  in  England,  and  such  the 
pressure  of  home  business,  that  two  full 
years  elapsed  before  any  attention  was 
given  to  the  Colonies,  or,  in  other  words, 
before  Coddington  could  obtain  a  hear- 
ing. At  a  meeting  of  the  Council,  Feb. 
18,  1651,  a  committee  was  appointed  "to 
consider  of  the  business  of  plantations," 
and  six  weeks  later,  April  3,  1651,  by  a 
vote  of  the  Council,  Coddington  received 
his  Commission. 

As  has  been  already  remarked,  the 
time  of  Coddington's  return  to  this  coun- 
try is  a  matter  of  uncertainty.  It  was 
probably  soon  after  the  visit  to  AVitter, 
and  is  generally  put  down  as  in  August, 
1651.  He  would  have  been  likely  to 
return  as  quickly  as  possible  after  ac- 
complishing the  object  of  his  visit,  and 


32  THREE  RHODE   ISLANDERS 

may  have  brought  the  news  of  his  Com- 
mission with  him :  so  that  it  couhl  not 
have  been  understood  "in  the  autumn 
of  1650"  that  Coddington  was  on  his 
wav  home  with  his  Commission  ;  and 
no  more  could  it  have  been  understood 
that  "it  was  his  desire  and  intention" 
to  bring  about  under  it  the  introduction 
of  Rhode  Island  into  the  Confederacy  of 
the  Colonies  or  its  annexation  to  Massa- 
chusetts. Setting  aside  the  question  of 
time,  which  makes  strongly  against  the 
new  theory,  Coddington^s  "desire  and 
intention "  must  be  determined  by  his 
previous  conduct  in  declining  the  an- 
nexation, and  by  the  nature  of  the 
Commission  which  he  asked  for  and 
procured. 

In  general,  then,  it  may  be  said 
against  the  theory  that  the  visit  to 
Mr.  Witter  had  a  j)olitical  purpose : — 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  33 

I.  There  is  not  a  scintilla  of  proof 
'of  it,  and  no  authority  for  it  whatever. 
It  is  a  specimen  of  hypothetical  history, 
with  all  the  known  facts  squarely  against 
it.  Dr.  Dexter  cites  Dr.  Palfrey,  and 
Dr.  Palfrey  cites  nobody. 

II.  If  Coddington's  design  was  such 
as  this  theory  supposes,  and  the  defeat 
of  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  object 
of  the  visit  to  Mr.  Witter,  it  could  not 
have  been  understood  by  Dr.  Clarke 
and  his  companions  before  their  visit 
was  planned  and  made. 

III.  If  Mr.  Coddington's  design  was 
such  as  this  theory  supposes,  there  ^vas 
no  necessity  whatever  for  this  visit  as 
a  method  of  defeating  it.  The  hostility 
of  the  authorities  of  the  Bay  to  Baptist 
principles,  their  intolerance  and  perse- 
cuting spirit,  were  too  well  known  al- 
ready to    require    any   new    exhibition. 


34  THREE  EHODE  ISLANDERS 

The  severe  law  of  1644,  condemning  to 
banishment  all  persons  who  "shall  either 
openly  condemn  or  oppose  the  baptizing 
of  infants,  or  go  about  secretly  to  seduce 
others  from  the  approbation  or  use  there- 
of, or  shall  purposely  depart  the  congre- 
gation at  the  administration  of  the  or- 
dinance, or  shall  deny  the  ordinance  of 
magistracy,  or  their  lawful  right  or  au- 
thority to  make  war,  or  to  punish  the 
outward  breaches  of  the  first  table,'-  had 
been  put  on  the  statute  book,  and  kept 
there  in  spite  of  the  "  Petition  and  Re- 
monstrance "  of  a  few  prominent  citizens. 
Thomas  Painter,  of  Hingham,  had  been 
cruelly  whipped  for  refusing  to  have  his 
child  baptized.  Complaints  against  such 
proceedings  had  been  sent  over  from 
England,  and  Mr.  Winslow  had  been 
commissioned  to  go  to  England  and  an- 
swer  them.      Mr.   Witter   himself   had 


IN  THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  35- 

been  twice  arraigned  before  the  Court. 
Mr.  Holmes  and  two  others  had  been 
brought  to  trial  at  Plymouth,  and  when 
they  had  been  treated  leniently  and 
bound  over,  a  remonstrance  from  the 
Court  at  Boston  had  been  sent  ^'  urging 
the  Plymouth  rulers  to  su^^press  them 
speedily."  And  all  this  in  addition  to 
the  treatment  which  Roger  Williams 
and  many  others  had  received.  Surely 
there  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  spiiit  and 
temper  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  and 
no  occasion  for  any  new  demonstration. 
Moreover,  Mr.  Coddington  had  few 
friends  and  sympathizers  in  Rhode  Is- 
land in  any  scheme  he  might  pro]30se. 
It  would  have  been  voted  down  by  an 
overwhelming  majority.  His  statement, 
when  seeking  an  alliance  with  the  Col- 
onies in  September,  1648,  that  a  major 
part   of   the    Island   desired   it,    is   not 


36  THREE   RHODE  ISLANDERS 

sustained  by  facts  wliicli  are  knowD. 
When  the  character  of  his  Commission 
was  discovered,  a  request  was  presented 
to  Di\  Clarke,  signed  by  sixty -five  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Newport  and  forty - 
one  of  the  inhabitants  of  Portsmouth, 
who,  it  is  said,  constituted  nearly  all  the 
free  inhabitants,  that  he  would  go  to 
England  to  secure  the  rescinding  of  IVIr. 
Coddino^ton's  Commission.  Dr.  Clarke 
yielded  to  this  request,  and,  in  connec- 
tion ^vith  Roger  A\  illiams,  who  was  sent 
by  Pro\4dence  and  AVarwick,  made  such 
representations  before  the  Council  of 
State  that  on  October  2,  1653,  it  voted 
"to  vacate  Mr.  Coddington's  Commission 
and  confirm  their  former  charter." 

IV.  The  facts  in  the  case  do  not 
warrant  the  belief  that  Mr.  Codding- 
ton's  "desire  and  intention"  in  procur- 
ing his  Commission  was  to  bring  Ehode 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  37 

Island  into  alliance  with  tlie  four  Col- 
onies, and,  much  less,  under  the  influence 
and  control  of  Massachusetts.  lie  had, 
indeed,  three  years  before,  for  reasons 
not  fully  explained,  sought  a  division 
of  the  Providence  Plantations  and  a 
friendly  league  with  the  Confederacy, 
It  is  possible  that  he  may  have  looked 
upon  the  league  as  the  only  method,  at 
that  time,  of  accomplishing  the  division 
on  which  he  seemed  bent.  When, 
however,  annexation  to  Plymouth  was 
recommended,  he  positively  declined 
any  such  condition  of  protection.  His 
journey  to  England  was  successful.  He 
fully  accomplished  his  object.  The  re- 
sult disclosed  the  full  extent  of  his 
design,  so  far  as  we  know.  Rhode  Is- 
land was  separated  from  Providence  and 
Warwick.  It  became  an  independent 
colony,  and  he  was  to  be  its  Governor 


90127 


38  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

for  life,  ^^'itll  the  powers  almost  of  dic- 
tator. 

V.  There  was  little  ocround  to  fear 
that  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  would 
consent  to  a  league  with  Rhode  Island, 
on  account  of  their  unrelenting  hostility 
to  the  principles  and  practices  of  its  in- 
habitants. The  application  for  such  a 
league  had  been  refused  again  and  again. 
"  In  truth/'  it  has  been  said,  "  these 
Rhode  Island  people  grew,  from  the 
beginning,  more  and  more  intolerable  to 
the  Boston  brethren.  It  was  l)ad  enough 
that  they  should  obstinately  maintain 
the  rights  of  independent  thought  and 
private  conscience ;  it  was  unpardonable 
that  they  should  assume  to  be  none  the 
less  sincere  Christians  and  good  citizens, 
and  should  succeed  in  establishing  a 
government  of  their  own  on  principles 
which  the  Massachusetts  General  Court 


IN  THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  30 

declared  were  criminal.  Even  in  a  cc^m- 
mon  peril  the  Massachusetts  magistrates 
could  recognize  no  tie  of  old  friendship, 
— hardly  indeed  of  human  sympathy, — 
that  should  bind  them  to  such  men." 

YI.  Causes  quite  sufficient  are  dis- 
coverable to  account  for  the  opposition 
to  Mr.  Coddington.  There  were  relig- 
ious differences  between  him  and  the 
other  leaders,  which  "  grew  to  such  heat 
of  contention  that  they  made  a  schism 
among  them."  Moreover,  affairs  in  Eng- 
land, ^V'hich  were  now  approaching  a 
crisis,  had  undoubtedly  no  little  influ- 
ence on  the  state  of  things  in  the  Plan- 
tations. Coddington  was  a  royalist, — 
while  Clarke,  Nicholas  Easton  and  other 
leaders  were  republicans,  and  the  repul)- 
lican  party  was  the  dominant  one.  And 
still  further,  there  was  a  very  general 
determination  to  resist  the  division  of 


40  THREE   EHODE   ISLAXDEES 

the  Providence  Plantations,  and  to  stand 
by  the  original  charter.  Coddington's 
ambitious  scheme  was  enough,  in  itself, 
to  arouse  the  most  bitter  and  determined 
opposition. 

VII.  If  Dr.  Clarke  and  his  compan- 
ions had  planned  their  visit  for  a  political 
purpose,  viz.,  to  draw  forth  the  intolerant 
spirit  of  the  magistrates  of  the  Bay,  and 
had  been  so  anxious  to  succeed  in  it,  as 
they  are  represented  to  have  been,  it  is 
perfectly  amazing  that  they  did  not  go 
directly  to  Boston  or  even  to  Salem,  in 
one  of  which  places  they  would  be  much 
more  likely  to  find  the  ''  Bay  Inill "  kept 
than  in  such  a  quiet,  obscure,  out-of-the- 
way  place  as  Swampscott,  which  was  two 
miles  even  from  Lynn.  That  this  place 
should  have  been  the  terminus  of  their 
journey  is  strangely  inconsistent  with 
anv  such  motive  as  is  ascribed  to  them. 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  41 

Their  supposed  shrewdness  seems  to 
have  failed  them  in  the  most  vital  point 
of  their  plan.  Having  determined  to 
seek  persecution,  they  took  the  surest 
method  to  escape  it. 

VIII.  We  are  told  distinctly  by  wliat 
ought  to  be  good  and  sufficient  author- 
ity that  the  object  of  the  visit  was  to 
minister  Christian  sympathy  to  an  aged 
brother  in  the  church.  The  visit  was 
made  to  Swampscott  because  the  brother 
whom  they  came  to  comfort,  lived  in 
Swampscott.  This  statement  rests  upon 
the  authority  of  the  Newport  Church 
Papers,  on  which  Dr.  Dexter  attempts  to 
throw  discredit,  in  order  to  break  down 
their  testimony.  He  says  :  "  Backus,  in- 
deed, professes  to  quote  (Vol.  L,  215) 
from  the  Newport  Church  Papers,"  whicli 
looks  very  like  a  charge  against  Backus 
of  wilful  dece^Dtion.    And  then  he  adds: 

4* 


42  THREE   RHODE  ISLANDERS 

''  But  one  cannot  help  thinking  that  those 
' Papers '  must  have  been  ^\ritten  long 

after  the  date  of  the  occurrence 

and  that  their  author  confused  the  order 
of  events."  That  those  Papers  are  al- 
together trustworthy  will  be  acknowl- 
edged when  it  is  remembered  that  they 
w^ere  "gathered  by  the  painstaking  John 
Comer  in  1726/'  and  "were  derived  from 
Samuel  Hubbard  and  Edward  Smith, 
both  members  of  the  Newport  Church, 
and  contemporary  with  the  events  nar- 
rated." At  any  rate  this  testimony  may 
be  accepted  as  valid  until  some  evidence 
to  the  contrary  is  presented  more  sub- 
stantial than  the  unreasonable  and  pre- 
posterous conjectures  of  Dr.  Palfre}'  and 
Dr.  Dexter. 

IX.  Finally,  the  purpose  of  the  visit 
to  Mr.  Witter,  as  thus  declared  and  uni- 
formly accepted  to  be  the  true  one,  is 


IN  THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  43 

entirely  sufficient  to  account  for  it,  and 
harmonizes  with  all  the  circumstances. 
Here  was  an  old  man  far  removed 
from  his  brethren  in  the  church,  and 
needing  Christian  sympathy  and  spirit- 
ual consolation,  but  by  reason  of  ao-e 
and  infirmity  unable  to  make  the  long 
journey  to  Newport.  Dr.  Dexter  is 
disposed  to  sneer  at  Witter's  age  and 
inability  to  make  the  journey.  But 
Witter  was  within  three  years  of  three 
score  and  ten.  He  is  spoken  of  as  being 
disabled  by  infirmity  such  as  "advanced 
age"  often  brings  with  it,  and  moreover 
as  being  blind.  The  journey  from  Lynn 
to  Newport,  for  such  a  man,  in  those 
days,  was  no  slight  undertaking.  It  was 
very  suitable  that  the  church  should  re- 
member him  in  his  loneliness  and  feeble- 
ness,—  surrounded  by  those  who  were 
hostile  to  his  faith,  and  probably  soon 


44  THREE   RHODE  ISLANDERS 

to  die.  It  is  quite  possible  that  Dr. 
Clarke  and  liis  companions  may  have 
thought  that  in  visiting  so  remote  a 
place  as  Swampscott  they  would  escape 
all  observation.  However  that  may 
have  been,  they  passed  quietly  through 
Boston,  and  having  timed  their  journey 
so  as  to  reach  AVitter  s  house  on  Satur- 
day evening,  there  they  lodged.  It  was 
a  brave,  loving.  Christian  deed,  in  Avhich 
can  be  traced  no  shrewd  policy  other 
than  the  prompting  of  a  Christlike 
sympathy,  and  no  defiant  purpose  other 
than  a  courao;eous  willino^ness  to  endure 
perilous  exposure  in  order  to  minister 
to  one  of  Christ's  imprisoned  and  needy 
disciples. 

Dr.  Clarke  published  in  England  a 
truthful  account  of  this  visit  and  the 
treatment  which  the  visitors  received — 
to  make  known,  as  he  said,  "how  that 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  45 

:spirit  by  ^vhicll  they  [the  Massachusetts 
authorities  I  are  led,  ^vould  order  the 
whole  World,  if  either  brought  under 
them  or  should  come  in  unto  them." 
And  when  Dr.  Dexter  says  that  Clarke 
w^as  careful  to  declare  that  one  purpose 
which  he  had  in  view  in  it  all,  was  to 
«how  how  they  would  treat  Rhode  Is- 
land Baptists,  were  they  to  be  annexed 
to  their  colony,  he  makes  an  utterly  un- 
warranted, and  it  is  difficult  not  to  say 
a  ^vilfully  false,  inference  from  Clarke's 
language.  For  the  language  was  not 
intended  to  apply  at  all  to  the  visit  and 
its  motive,  but  only  to  the  published 
account  of  the  visit ;  and  even  then 
contains  no  such  meanino^  as  Dr.  Dex- 
ter  interprets  into  it.  Dr.  Clarke  ^vas 
showing  simply  how  he  and  his  com- 
panions were  treated,  and  hoAA'  all  ^\'ho 
•differed  religiously  from  the  Massachu- 


46  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

setts  authorities,  would  l)e  likely  to  be 
treated,  if  they  should  fall  into  their 
hands.  AVe  have  here  an  illustration  of 
how  an  unresisted  bias  may  disqualify 
a  historian  for  his  high  othce,  and  ho^\' 
a  weak  theory  may  seek  to  bolster  itself 
up  by  a  fallacious  deduction. 

It  will  l)e  necessary  to  consider  more 
briefly  the  two  remaining  points,  viz., 
the  alleged  criminal  conduct  of  Mr. 
Witters  visitors,  and  the  punishment 
which  they  received  at  the  hands  of 
the  Bav  maaistrates. 

Having  arrived  at  Mr.  Witter's  on 
Saturday  evening,  they  thought  it  best 
"to  worship  God  in  their  own  way  on 
the  Lord's  day  "  in  Witter's  house.  Dr. 
Clarke,  in  his  narrative,  thus  describes 
the  scene  :  "  Finding,  by  sad  experience, 
that  the  hour  of  temptation  spoken  of 
was  coming  upon  all  the   World  (in  a 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  47 

more  eminent  way)  to  try  them  that  are 
upon  the  Earth,  I  fell  upon  the  consid- 
eration of  that  Word  of  Promise,  made 
to  those  that  keep  the  Word  of  his  Pa- 
tience, which  present  thoughts,  while  in 
conscience  towards  God  and  good  will 
unto  his  Saints,  I  was  imparting  to  my 
Companions  in  the  house  where  I  lodged, 
and  to  4:  or  5  Strangers  that  came  in  un- 
expected after  I  had  begun,  opening  and 
proving  what  is  meant  hj  the  hour  of 
Temptation,  what  by  the  AVord  of  his^ 
patience,"  &c.  But  the  presence  of  these 
heretics  had  been  discovered.  The  scent 
of  heresy  was  marvelously  acute.  The 
(piiet  service  in  that  remote  place  was 
suddenly  interrupted  by  the  entrance  of 
two  constables  with  a  warrant,  signed 
])y  Robei-t  Bridges,  for  the  arrest  of 
"certain  erroneous  persons,  being  stran- 
gers.""  The  warrant,  of  course,  was  issued 


48  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

before  the  service  was  held  ;  therefore 
the  only  offence  thus  far  of  Dr.  Clarke 
and  his  companions  was  that  they  w^ere 
there.  Their  polite  request  to  be  allowed 
to  complete  the  service  was  impolitely 
refused.  They  offered  no  resistance  to 
their  arrest  and  were  taken  to  the  "or- 
dinary" for  safe -keeping.  In  the  after- 
noon they  were  compelled,  against  their 
protest,  to  go  to  the  public  religious 
service."^  They  manifested  their  disap- 
proval by  silently  reading  during   the 

*  Dr.  Clarke  said  :  "If  thou  forcest  us  into  your 
assembly,  then  shall  we  be  constrained  to  declare  our- 
selves that  we  cannot  hold  communion  with  them." 
Their  opposition  to  going  to  this  public  service,  and 
their  discourteous  conduct  while  there,  are  to  be  ac- 
counted for  on  the  ground  of  that  Intense  and  narrow 
conscientiousness  which  characterized  the  times.  It 
prevailed  everywhere.  Whatsoever  was  not  of  faith, 
in  their  judgment,  was  sin.  They  could  not  even  ap- 
pear to  fellowship  and  indorse  it,  or  to  show  any 
sympathy  with  it.  Clarke  and  his  companions  could 
not,  in  conscience,  be  present  at  this  Sunday  afternoon 
service  without  giving  expression  to  their  disfellow- 
ship  and  disapprobation. 


IN   THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  49 

service,  and  l)y  failing  to  remove  their 
hats,  which  the  constable  removed  for 
them.  When  the  service  was  over,  Dr. 
Clarke  rose  and  said  :  "  I  desire  as  a 
stranger,  if  I  may,  to  propose  a  few 
things  to  this  Congregation,  hoping,  in 
the  proposall  thereof,  I  shall  commend 
myself  to  your  consciences  to  be  guided 
by  that  wisdom  that  is  from  above^ 
which,  being  pnre,  is  also  peaceable, 
gentle,  and  easie  to  be  intreated."  He 
was  not  allowed  to  proceed,  and  the 
prisoners  were  remanded  to  the  "or- 
dinary."" They  w^ere  sent  to  prison  in 
Boston  by  the  mittimus  of  Mr.  Bridges 
under  date  of  Tuesday,  July  2  2d. 

The  language  of  the  mittimu.^  is  sig- 
nificant as  disclosing  the  nature  of  their 
oifences,  viz.:  '^for  being  at  a  Private 
Meeting  at  Lin  upon  the  Lord's  day, 
exercising    upon   themselves,"    "for   of- 


50  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

fensively  disturbing  the  peace  of  tlie 
Congregation  at  tlieir  coming  into  the 
Publique  Meeting,"  ^' for  saying  and 
manifesting  that  the  church  of  Lin  was 
not  constituted  according  to  the  order 
of  our  Lord  cfec,  for  such  other  things 
as  shall  be  alleged  against  them  concern- 
ing their  seducing  and  drawing  aside  of 
others  after  their  erroneous  judgments 
and  practices,  and  for  suspition  of  hav- 
ing their  hands  in  the  rebaptizing  of 
one,  or  more,  among  us." 

The  magistrates,  in  the  exercise  of 
their  judicial  watchfulness  against  the 
awful  sin  of  Anabaptism,  suspected  that 
there  had  been  a  baptism.  Dr.  Clarke 
was  charged  also  Avith  having  adminis- 
tered the  Lord's  Supper  while  there. 
Such  was  the  nature  of  their  offences. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  consider  at  this 
time  whether  the  suspicions  of  the  au- 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  51 

thorities  were  Avell-founded  or  not.  The 
probability  is  that  they  were  only  sus- 
picions."^' But,  in  any  event,  there  was 
no  disturbance  of  the  peace,  no  violation 
of  any  civil  law, — only  the  exercise  of 
the  right  to  worship  God  in  their  own 
way,  and  gather  comfort  from  his  truth 
and  ordinances  within  the  sacred  temple 
and  castle  of  a  man's  private  dwelling. 
We  now  come  to  the  concluding  and 
most  distressing  part  of  this  transaction, 
viz.,  the  punishment  which  was  inflicted 
upon  these  three  oifenders,  and  especially 
upon  Mr.  Holmes.  Having  been  taken 
to  Boston,  they  were  arraigned  the  fol- 
lowing week,  on  Thursday,  July  31st. 
Dr.  Clarke  says:  "In  the  forenoon  we 
were  examined;  in  the  afternoon,  with- 
out  producing   either  accuser,  witness, 

*This  question  is  full}'  considered  in  my  "Early 
Baptists  Defended,"  p.  32-37. 


52  THREE   EHODE   ISLAXDEES 

jury,  law  of  God  or  man,  we  were  sen- 
tenced." Durino-  the  examination  Gov- 
ernor  Endicott  charged  them  with  being 
Anabaptists ;  to  whom  Clarke  rej)lied 
that  he  was  "neither  an  Anabaptist, 
nor  a  Pedo])aptist,  nor  a  Catabaptist.'' 
The  Governor  lost  his  temper,  and  de- 
clared they  '^  deserved  death,  and  he 
would  not  have  such  trash  l)roao^ht  in- 
to  their  jurisdiction " ;  also  insinuating 
that  they  had  influence  over  weak- 
minded  persons  only,  and  daring  them 
to  hold  a  discussion  A^'ith  the  ministers. 
This  challenge  Dr.  Clarke  promptly  ac- 
cepted, and  endeavored  to  ])ring  about 
the  desired  discussion.  The  magistrates 
seemed  at  first  to  consent,  but  after  some 
delay  it  came  to  naught.  The  excite- 
ment at  the  time  of  the  so-called  "trial" 
must  have  been  intense,  —  not  that  it 
would  take  nnicli  "to   put  John  Endi- 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  53 

cott  in  a  towering  passion  at  any  time." 
But  even  John  Wilson,  the  pastor,  struck 
and  cursed  Holmes,  saying :  "  The  curse 
of  God  or  Jesus  goe  with  thee,"  l)ecause 
Holmes  had  meekly  said  :  "  I  l^lesse  God 
I  am  counted  Av^orthy  to  suffer  for  the 
name  of  Jesus." 

The  sentences  of  the  three  men  varied 
in  severity.  Crandall  was  sentenced  to 
pay  five  pounds  or  to  be  well  an  hipped, 
Clarke  to  pay  twenty  pounds  or  to  l)e 
A\'ell  Avl lipped,  and  Holmes  to  pay 
thirty  pounds  or  to  be  well  Avhipped. 
Crandall's  punishment  was  the  lightest, 
))ecause  he  was  the  least  prominent. 
Holmes'  was  the  heaviest  undoubtedly 
because  he  had  been  excommunicated 
from  the  church  at  Rehoboth,  and  hav- 
ing })een  guilty  of  l)aptizing  had  l)een 
dealt  lightly  Avith  l)y  the  Court  at  Ply- 
mouth.     Massachusetts   sent    a   remon- 


54  THREE  RHODE   ISLANDERS 

straiice  at  the  time.  They  now  had  the 
criminal  in  their  own  power,  and  felt 
themselves  called  upon  to  make  amends 
for  Plymouth's  leniency,  and  to  see  that 
justice  was  meted  out.  Criminals  of 
such  a  dangerous  character  must  not 
go  unpunished.  Xot  only  his  present 
transgression  but  the  sins  of  "  other 
times  "  were  charged  against  him  ;  and 
no\v  that  he  was  in  their  jurisdiction 
they  would  make  him  suffer  for  sins 
committed  out  of  their  jurisdiction.  So 
reasoned  these  self-appointed  guardians 
of  the  new  world's  faith  and  peace,  who 
looked  upon  themselves  as  God's  minis- 
ters of  justice,  —  for  their  neighbors  as 
well  as  for  themselves. 

The  fines  imposed  upon  Crandall  and 
Clarke  were  paid  by  ''  tender  -  hearted 
friends,  ^dthout  their  consent  and  con- 
trary to   their   judgment,"    though  the 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  55 

matter  has  an  entirely  different  and  un- 
truthful aspect  in  the  accounts  of  John 
Cotton  and  Dr.  Dexter.  Cotton,  Avho  jus- 
tified the  whole  transaction,  said  Clarke 
^'  was  contented  to  have  his  fine  paid  for 
him,"  and  Dr.  Dexter  represents  him, 
notwithstanding  his  alleged  eagerness 
to  suffer  persecution  according  to  his 
theory,  as  "  very  A\411ing  to  leave  for 
home." 

There  were  those,  too,  A\dio  would 
have  paid  the  fine  of  Holmes;  but,  to 
use  his  own  words,  he  "durst  not  accept 
of  deliverance  in  such  a  way."  His 
conscience  compelled  him  to  refuse  the 
friendly  offer,  lest  he  should  appear  to 
confess  himself  a  transgressor."^'    It  seems 

*  Cotton's  letter  to  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  in  defence 
of  the  Puritan  magistrates  is  a  remarkable  document. 
In  it  he  seeks  to  tiirow  the  responsibility  of  the  ^vhip- 
ping  upon  Holmes  himself  :  "As  for  his  whipping,  it 
was  more  voluntarily  chosen  by  him  than  iutiicted  on 


56  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

certain  from  tlie  narrative,  not  only  that 
lie  was  nnwilling  to  allow  the  fine  to  be 
paid,  but  that,  as  he  was  the  greatest 
offender  in  the  judgment  of  the  author- 
ities, they  were  not  willing  to  allow  it 
to  be  paid,  as  they  had  been  in  the  case 
of  the  others.  They  made  his  case  an 
exception,  and  held  him  to  the  letter  of 


him.  His  censure  by  the  Court  was  to  have  paid  (as  I 
know)  thirty  pounds,  or  else  be  whipped  ;  his  fine  was 
offered  to  be  paid  by  friends  for  him  freely,  but  he 
€liose  rather  to  be  whipped  ;  in  which  case,  if  his  suf- 
fering of  stripes  was  any  worship  of  God  at  all.  surely 
it  could  be  accounted  no  better  than  will-worship." 
To  which  Governor  Jenks  replies:  "Although  the 
paying  of  a  fine  seems  to  be  but  a  small  thing  in 
comparison  of  a  man's  parting  with  his  religion,  yet 
the  paying  of  a  fine  is  the  acknowledgment  of  a  trans- 
gression ;  and  for  a  man  to  acknowledge  that  he  has 
transgressed,  when  his  conscience  tells  him  he  has  not, 
is  but  little,  if  anything  at  all,  short  of  parting  with 
his  religion."  Cotton  seems  to  have  been  incapable  of 
understanding  that  there  could  be  a  great  principle  in- 
volved in  Holmes'  unwillingness  to  consent  to  have  his 
fine  paid,  and  sees  in  it,  or  pretends  to  see  in  it,  only  a 
spirit  of  wilful  obstinacy,  Avhich  chose  the  whipping 
rather  than  to  be  released. 


IX  THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  57 

the  penalty,  —  inflicting  upon  him  the 
cruel  punishment  of  thirty  stripes, — 
which  was  the  penalty  for  the  crimes 
of  adultery,  ra^je,  and  counterfeiting, 
and  was,  within  ten  stripes,  the  maxi- 
mum number  allowed  by  law. 

The  account  of  the  cruel  whipj^ing  is 
given  in  very  touching  Christian  lan- 
guage in  Holmes'  letter  to  the  brethren 
in  London.  Having  been  kept  in  prison 
until  September,  he  was  led  forth  to  his 
punishment,  cheerfully  trusting  in  God 
and  in  the  righteousness  of  his  cause, 
and  taking  his  Testament  in  his  hand 
as  being  the  substance  of  his  faith  and 
the  source  of  his  comfort  and  strength. 
When  he  had  l^een  stripj^ed  of  his 
clothing, — he  neither  assisting  nor  re- 
sisting, and  telling  them  that  for  all 
Boston  he  would  not  mve  his  bod^'  in- 
to  their  hands  thus  to  be  bruised  upon 


58  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

any  other  account,  yet  upon  this  he 
would  not  give  the  hundredth  part  of 
a  wampum  peague  (the  sixth  part  of  a 
penny)  to  free  it  out  of  their  hands, 
and  that  he  made  as  much  conscience 
of  unbuttoning  one  button  as  he  did 
of  paying  the  thirty  pounds, — the  ex- 
ecutioner was  commanded  to  "doe  his 
office;^ 

'^As  the  man  began  to  lay  the  stroaks 
upon  my  back,"  wrote  the  sufferer,  "I 
said  to  the  people,  though  my  Flesh 
should  fail  and  my  Spirit  should  fail, 
yet  God  would  not  fail ;  so  it  pleased 
the  Lord  to  come  in  and  to  so  fill  my 
heart  and  tongue  as  a  vessel  full,  and 
^vith  an  audible  voyce  I  brake  forth, 
praying  unto  the  Lord  not  to  lay  this 
Sin  to  their  charge,  and  telling  the 
people  that  now  I  found  he  did  not 
fail  me  ;   and  therefore,  now  I  should 


IN  THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  59 

trust  liim  forever  who  failed  nie  not ; 
for  in  truth,  as  the  stroaks  fell  upon 
me,  I  had  such  a  spirituall  manifesta- 
tion of  God's  presence,  as  the  like  there- 
unto I  never  had,  nor  felt,  nor  can  with 
ileshly  tongue  expresse  ;  and  the  out- 
ward pain  was  so  removed  from  me, 
that  indeed  I  am  not  able  to  declare  it 
to  you  ;  it  was  so  easy  to  me  that  I 
could  well  bear  it,  yea,  and  in  a  manner 
felt  it  not,  although  it  was  grievous ;  as 
the  Spectators  said,  the  Man  striking 
with  all  his  strength  (yea,  spitting  on 
his  hands  three  times,  as  many  affirmed) 
with  a  three -coarded  whip,  giving  me 
therewith  thirty  stroaks.  When  he  had 
loosed  me  from  the  Post,  having  joyful- 
nesse  in  my  heart,  and  cheerfulness  in 
my  countenance,  as  the  Spectators  ob- 
served, I  told  the  Magistrates  —  You 
have  struck  me  as  w4th  Roses  ;  and  said 


60  THREE   imODE   ISLANDERS 

moreover  Altliough  the  Lord  hath  made 
it  easie  to  me,  yet  I  pray  it  may  not  be 
laid  to  your  charge." 

Such  is  the  plain,  pathetic  story  of  his 
sufferings,  as  told  by  Holmes  himself,  in 
which  he  sought  to  exalt  the  wonderful 
grace  of  God  which  sustained  liim,  and 
manifested  in  a  remarkable  degree  the 
spirit  of  a  Christlike  forgiveness.  So 
severe  was  his  23unishment  that  the 
hearts  of  the  spectators  were  moved  to 
a  sympathy  which  they  could  not  re- 
press, although  the  expression  of  it  put 
them  in  peril  of  like  punishment.  A 
former  acquaintance  visited  him,  when 
taken  back  to  prison,  and,  as  he  said^ 
"poured  oyl  into  my  wound  and  plais- 
tered  my  sores.*"  That  it  was  a  cruel 
punishment,  inflicted  with  unmitigated 
severity,  no  candid  reader  of  the.  nar- 
rative   will    (question    for    an    instant. 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  61 

(xovernor  Joseph  Jenks,  writing  in  tlie 
first  third  of  the  last  century,  so  that 
he  must  have  received  his  information 
from  contemporaries  of  Hohnes,  de- 
scribes it  thus  :  "  Mr.  Holmes  was 
whipped  thirty  stripes,  and  in  such  an 
unmerciful  manner,  that  in  many  days, 
if  not  some  weeks,  he  could  take  no 
rest  but  as  he  lay  upon  his  knees  and 
elbows,  not  being  able  to  suffer  any 
part  of  his  body  to  touch  the  bed 
whereon  he  lay."  In  similar  language 
Callender,  Arnold,  Oliver,  Bancroft,  Gay, 
Adams,  Straus  and  others  describe  the 
whipping. 

But  Dr.  Dexter  in  a  remarkable  note"^ 
says  :  "  Arnold  thinks  he  was  ^  cruelly 
whipped.'  But  Clarke  says  [he  ought 
to  have  inserted  ^  that  Holmes  said '  ] 
'  It  was  so  easie  to  me  that  I  could  well 

*A8  to  Roger  Williams,  p.  121. 


62  THREE  RHODE  ISLANDERS 

bear  it,  and  in  a  manner  felt  it  not ' ; 
and  that  lie  told  the  magistrates  after 
it  was  over  ^  You  have  struck  me  as 
with  Roses.'  Dr.  Palfrey  suspects  the 
executioner  had  orders  '  to  vindicate 
what  they  thought  the  majesty  of  the 
law  at  little  cost  to  the  delinquent.' " 
Dr.  Dexter  would  have  his  readers 
understand  that  Holmes'  j^^^^^^hment 
may  not  have  been  very  severe,  after 
all ;  that  it  may  have  been  little  more 
than  a  farce,  an  apparent  vindication  of 
the  majesty  of  the  law ;  and  he  throws 
back  the  responsibility  of  the  insinua- 
tion upon  his  great  master.  Dr.  Palfrey, 
who,  he  says,  "  suspects  "  that  it  may 
have  been  so.  Having  had  our  confi- 
dence in  Dr.  Dexter's  fairness  seriously 
shaken,  we  feel  compelled  to  verify  his 
quotations,  even  when  he  quotes  from 
Dr.  Palfrey.     Turning  to  Palfrey's  His- 


IN  THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  63 

tory,  we  read:  "When  he  (Holmes) 
relates  that  the  scourging  which  he 
endured  'was  so  easy  to  him  that  he 
could  AN  ell  bear  it,  yea,  and  in  a  manner 
felt  it  not,  and  that  he  told  the  Magis- 
trates 'You  hav^e  struck  me  as  with 
Roses,'  the  reader  ventures  to  hope  that 
the  executioner  had  been  directed  by  his 
superiors  to  vindicate  what  they  thought 
the  majesty  of  the  law,  at  little  cost  to 
the  delinquent." 

The  phrase  used  is,  it  will  be  noticed, 
"the  reader  ventures  to  hope."  To  be 
sure,  to  ordinary  readers  such  a  hope  is 
consideral:)le  of  a  venture,  in  the  face 
of  the  facts  as  narrated,  which  both  Dr. 
Palfi'ey  and  Dr.  Dexter  must  have  had 
before  them.  If  it  was  only  a  humane 
"hope,"  it  might  be  allowed  to  pass  un- 
noticed. But  the  "hope"  of  Dr.  Palfrey, 
unwarranted  as  that  is,  is  magnified  and 


64  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

pervei-ted  into  a  "suspicion"  in  the  pro- 
cess of  quotation  by  Dr.  Dexter ;  and 
when  he  seeks  to  ground  that  suspicion 
upon  the  pathetic  words  of  the  patient 
sufferer,  and  to  ascribe  the  effect  of  the 
sustaining  grace  of  God  to  the  imagined 
grace  of  the  executioner  oi'  the  magis- 
trates, he  is  guilty  of  a  palpable,  gross 
and  unpardonable  misrepresentation. 

Such  a  note  as  Dr.  Dexter's,  the  in- 
tent of  which  is  so  manifestly  uncandid, 
and  which  j^resents  a  monstrous  distor- 
tion of  the  truth,  is  sufficient  to  destroy 
confidence  in  any  volume,  or  in  the 
honest  purpose  of  the  authoi'  to  ^Nrite 
history  fairly. 

The  Puritan  mas^istrates  ^vere  in  no 
mood  to  play  a  farce ;  the}'  Avere  in  dead 
earnest.  They  were  l)ent  on  tragedy. 
In  their  judgment  Holmes  was  guilty 
of  a  most  serious  crime.     Governor  En- 


IN  THE   MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  65 

dicott  had  told  him  he  deserved  death, 
and  the  meek  pastor,  John  Wilson,  had 
^'  struck  and  cursed  "  the  prisoner  in  holy 
indignation,  in  "the  exquisite  rancor  of 
theoloii^ical  hatred."  The  executioner  is 
represented  as  "striking  with  all  his 
strength,  yea,  spitting  on  his  hands 
three  times,  as  many  affirmed."  War- 
rants were  issued  for  no  less  than  tliir- 
teen  persons  who  were  unable  to  repress 
their  compassion  foi*  Holmes  at  the  time 
of  the  whipping.  The  most  of  them, 
however,  escaped.  Two  only,  —  John 
Spur  and  John  Hazel,  wlio  had  taken 
the  bleeding  sufferer  by  the  hand  as  he 
was  led  aAvay  from  the  whipping-post, — 
were  arrested  ;  and  it  is  more  than  inti- 
mated that  there  would  have  been  more 
whipping  had  not  the  executioner  taken 
himself  out  of  the  way  so  that  he  could 
not    be   found.  —  having    probably  had 

6* 


66  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

enougli  of  the  bloody  work.  There  is 
oiil}'  one  possible  conclusion  to  be  ac- 
cepted, viz.,  that  never  was  sentence  of 
court  executed  more  literally,  never  did 
executioner  do  his  ^vork  more  faithfully. 
It  has  not  been  a  pleasant  duty  to 
dwell  upon  these  painful  details.  But 
the  memories  of  men  ^vho  were  loyal  to 
their  convictions  of  truth  and  the  rights 
of  conscience,  and  to  their  more  perfect 
views  of  soul  -  liberty,  are  as  sacred  as 
the  memories  of  those  ^vho  made  them 
to  suffer,  and  as  worthy  of  being  pro- 
tected from  sacrilegious  assault.  Better 
that  this  whole  transaction  should  be 
passed  by  in  silence  —  as  it  was  by  Cap- 
tain Johnson  in  his  "History  of  1H54," 
by  Mr.  Morton  in  his  "Kew  England 
Memorial  of  1669,"  by  Mr.  Hubbard  in 
his  '^History  of  1680,"  by  Cotton  Mather 
in  his  "History  of  1702,"  and  by  Gover- 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  67 

nor  Hutchinson  in  the  first  two  volumes 
of  his  History  —  than  that,  for  the  sake 
of  justifying  the  persecutors,  the  motives 
of  the  persecuted  should  be  maligned, 
and  their  sufferings  for  the  sake  of  con- 
science and  liberty  should  be  made  light 
of.  John  Clarke,  the  learned  physician 
and  able  pastor  of  the  NcANport  Baptist 
Church  was  in  some  respects  the  peer 
of  lioger  Williams,  though  less  widely 
known  and  honored.*     Obadiah  Holmes, 


*Rev.  John  Callender  says  of  Dr.  Clarke  :  "He  was 
n  faithful  and  useful  minister,  courteous  in  all  the  re- 
lations of  life,  aud  an  ornament  to  his  profession  and  to 
the  several  offices  which  he  sustained.  His  memory  is 
deserving  of  lasting  honor  for  his  efforts  toward  estab- 
lishing the  first  government  in  the  world  which  gave 
to  all  equal  civil  and  religious  liberty.  To  no  man  is 
Rhode  Island  more  indebted  than  to  him.  He  was  one 
■of  the  original  projectors  of  the  settlement  of  the  Is- 
land, and  one  of  its  ablest  legislators.  No  character  in 
New  England  is  of  purer  fame  than  John  Clarke."  It 
is  not  known  where  Dr.  Clarke  was  educated  ;  but  the 
following  item  in  his  will  shows  him  to  have  been  a 
man  of  wide  learning  and  studious  habits  :  "  Unto  my 
loving  friend,  Richard  Bayley,  I  give  and  bequeath  my 


68  THREE   RHODE  ISLAKDEES 

the  martyr  of  heavenly  spirit  and  trium- 
phant faith,  was  Dr.  Clarke's  honored 
$$uccessor  in  the  pastoral  office  for  thirty 
years.*  The  unchristian  and  inhuman 
treatment  of  these  worthies  called  forth 
remonstrances  on  l)oth  sides  of  the  At- 
lantic. Sir  Eichard  Saltonstall,  one  of 
the  tirst   magistrates  of  the  Massachu- 

concordance  and  lexicon  thereto  belonging,  written  by 
mj'self,  being  the  fruit  of  several  years'  study,  my 
Hebrew  Bible,  Buxtorff's  and  Parsons'  lexicons,  Cot- 
ton's Concordance,  and  all  the  rest  of  my  books."  He 
did  not  return  from  his  mission  to  England  till  1664. 
having  remained  there  as  the  agent  of  the  Colony.  He 
died  April  20,  1676. 

*Obadiah  Holmes  was  born  at  Preston,  Lancashire, 
England,  about  the  year  1606,  and  came  to  this  country 
tibout  1639.  He  belonged  to  a  family  of  considerable 
means  and  of  acknowledged  respectability.  He  said  of 
his  parents  :  "They  were  faithful  in  their  generation, 
and  of  good  report  among  men,  and  brought  up  their 
children  tenderly  and  honorably."  Three  sons  were 
educated  at  Oxford,  one  of  Avhom  was  probably  Oba- 
diah.  This  is  evidence  that  the  family  was  in  ample 
circumstances  and  of  more  than  ordinary  culture.  Oba- 
diah  Holmes  died  in  1682,  leaving  a  large  pos.terity. 
some  of  whom  have  obtained  distinction  in  the  learned 
pfofessions. 


IN   THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  69 

setts  Bay,  who  was  at  the  time  in  Eng- 
land, wrote  sharply  rebuking  Cotton  and 
AVilson  for  their  "tyranny  and  persecu- 
tion in  New  England  as  that  you  fine, 
whip  and  imprison  men  for  their  con- 
sciences  We  pray  for  you  and 

wish  you  prosperity  every  way;  hoped 
the  Lord  would  have  given  you  so  much 
light  and  love  there,  that  you  might 
have  l)een  eyes  to  God's  peo]3le  here, 
and  not  to  practice  those  courses  in  a 
wilderness  which  you  went  so  far  to 
prevent."  And  Koger  Williams  —  the 
great  apostle  of  religious  liljerty,  whose 
voice,  from  before  his  banishment  until 
the  day  of  his  death,  ceased  not  to  pro- 
claim the  sublime  principle  of  which  his 
name  will  ever  ])e  the  illustrious  expo- 
nent—  wrote  to  Governor  Endicott  such 
characteristic  words  as  these :  "  8ir,  I 
must  l)e  humbly  bold  to  say  'tis  impos- 


70  THREE  RHODE  IISLANDERS 

sible  for  any  man  or  men  to  maintain 
their  Christ  hy  their  sword,  and  to  wor- 
ship a  true  Christ  I  to  fight  against  all 
consciences  opposite  theirs,  and  not  to 
fight  against  God  in  some  of  them,  and 
to  hunt  after  the  precious  life  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

The  true  philosophical  historian  can- 
not treat  this  incident,  which  we  have 
been  considering,  as  an  isolated  phenom- 
enon. It  was  symptomatic  of  a  social 
condition  and  of  a  prevailing  religious 
spirit.  It  reveals  to  us  the  attitude  — 
conscientious,  indeed,  but  nevertheless 
the  attitude — of  the  ruling  minds  among 
the  Puritans.  It  was  not  necessary  for 
a  man  to  l)e  a  disturber  of  the  peace  in 
order  to  be  whipped  or  banished  ;  or 
rather,  whoever  differed  from  them  in 
religious  faith  or  practice,  and  claimed 
the  riofht  to  indulo-e  the  exercise  thereof, 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  71 

was,  in  their  judgment,  a  disturber  of 
the  peace.  Uniformity  of  religious  be- 
lief was  the  animating  purpose  of  their 
government,  the  sacred  end  of  their  leg- 
islation, a  principal  object  of  their  social 
compact  and  existence.  The  language 
of  James  I.  expressed  tlieir  sentiment 
towards  all  dissentients  :  ''  I  will  make 
them  conform,  or  I  will  harry  them  out 
of  my  kingdom."  There  are  men  to-day 
who  boast  of  their  descent  from  the 
Puritans,  and  laud  their  excellencies  — 
and  rightly  so — who  would  not  have 
been  allowed  to  remain  ^vithin  their  bor- 
ders twenty -four  hours  unmolested. 

This  incident  throws  its  light  u2)on  that 
long  series  of  persecutions,  in  which  the 
Puritan  magistrates  solemnly  delighted 
themselves,  of  Church  of  England  men^ 
Antinomians,  Quakers,  and  Anaba])tists. 
This  incident   throws  light  —  if  any  is. 


72  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

needed  —  upon  the  cause  of  the  banish- 
ment of  Roofer  Williams,  which  some- 
what  memorable  event  took  place  only 
fifteen  years  before.  The  spirit  of  the 
Puritan  magistrates  had  suffered  no 
change  in  that  interval  of  time.  It  was 
neither  better,  nor  worse,  nor  different. 
They  tried  to  be  consistent,  and  to  make 
their  principles  of  Church  and  State 
triumphant,  though  no  candid  man  is 
now  rash  enough  to  say  that  those  prin- 
ciples were  right.  Dr.  George  E.  Ellis 
has  truly  said :  ''  Intolerance  was  a  neces- 
sary condition  of  their  enterprise.  They 
feared  and  hated  religious  liberty."  In 
parallel  words  Professor  J.  L.  Diman 
describes  them  as  "intolerant  of  differ- 
ence of  opinion,  regarding  liberty  of 
conscience  with  equal  fear  and  hate." 
And  so  they  feared  and  hated  Roger 
Williams,    who    not    onlv    entertained 


m  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  73 

broad  and  correct  views  of  religions 
liberty,  but  advocated  tliem  as  oppor- 
tunity offered  itself. 

To  make  a  distinction  between  a 
man's  religious  opinions  and  his  dispo- 
sition, whose  only  offending  was  that 
it  defended  those  opinions,  is  to  make 
a  distinction  without  great  diff'erence. 
The  phrase  "  disturber  of  the  peace " 
did  not  then  signif}^  any  such  thing  as 
it  means  to-day.  None  of  those  offend- 
ers had  })een  guilty  of  any  overt  acts 
against  civil  laws,  but  only  of  violation 
of  religious  laws  which  were  incorpo- 
rated into  civil  legislation.  To  hold 
religious  opinions  diff'erent  from  those 
of  the  magistrates  and  the  body  of  the 
people,  and  to  be  disposed  to  advocate 
them,  was  to  be  wickedly  contentious 
and  criminal  according  to  their  stand- 
ards.    Religious  offenders  were   politi- 


74  THREE  RHODE   ISLANDERS 

cal  offenders.  It  is  evident  enough  to 
candid  students  of  colonial  history  that 
it  was  not  Roger  AVilliams'  disposition^ 
in  distinction  from  his  relictions  views, 
that  caused  his  banishment,  but  the  dis- 
position of  the  Puritan  magistrates. 

They  indulged  in  no  such  hair-split- 
ting and  specious  methods.  To  them 
Roger  Williams  represented  vicAvs  and 
ideas  of  liberty  which  they  '^  feared 
and  hated."  He  was  already  accused 
of  anabaptism.  It  is  recorded  that 
Elder  Brewster,  in  1633  or  1634,  pre- 
vailed A^-ith  the  church  in  Plpnouth 
to  grant  Williams'  reipiest  for  dismis- 
sion, "  fearing  that  he  would  run  the 
same  course  of  rigid  separation  and 
anabaptist rv  which  Mr.  John  Smyth 
at  Amsterdam  had  done,"  and  that  at 
Salem,  where  the  church  though  warned 
against  him  had  received  him,  "in  one 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  75 

year's  time  lie  had  filled  that  place  with 
princijiles  of  rigid  separation  and  tend- 
ing to  anabaptism." 

Anabaptism  ^vas  the  synonym  of  re- 
ligious liberty.  It  had  been  before 
Christendom  as  a  distinct  movement  for 
a  hundred  years, — in  Switzerland  and 
Germany,  in  Holland,  and  in  England. 
Its  first  confession  of  faith,  issued  in 
1527  at  Schleithheim,  a  little  to^vn  near 
Schaifhausen,  openly  claimed  and  pro- 
claimed religious  liberty.  In  the  Neth- 
erlands, during  all  the  fierce  struggle 
for  civil  liberty,  these  people,  it  is  said, 
"  kejjt  intact  their  ideas  of  religious 
liberty."  The  confession  of  faith  issued 
by  the  Anabaptists  in  London  in  1611 
contained  the  enunciation  of  the  same 
great  principle  ;  and  in  all  these  lands 
their  fidelity  cost  them  their  lives. 
Mark    Pattison,    in    liis    biography    of 


76  THREE   RHODE  ISLANDERS 

John  Milton,  whose  broad  views  of  tol- 
eration are  well  kno^vn,  says,  that  on 
that  account  "every  Philistine  leveled 
at  him  the  contemptuous  epithet  of  An- 
abaptist most  freely."  So  thoroughly 
was  anabaptism  identified  with  religious 
liberty,  that,  if  any  man  advocated  a 
more  generous  toleration,  this  epithet 
was  hurled  at  him,  and  not  only  in 
the  old  world,  but  in  this  new  world 
as  well. 

Roger  Williams  was,  if  not  already 
an  Anabaptist,  fast  tending  to  it.  The 
Puritan  magistrates  understood  perfectly 
Avhat  he  stood  for,  —  if  some  of  their 
modern  misinterpreters  do  not.  Arnold 
says :  "  To  fasten  upon  Roger  Williams 
the  stigma  of  factious  opposition  to  the 
government  is  to  belie  history,  by  an 
effort  to  vindicate  bigotry  and  tyranny 
at  the  expense  of  truth."     In  the  charge 


IN   THE   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  77 

against  Williams — under  Avhicli  he  Avas 
tried,  convicted  and  banished — the  first 
item,  which  may  be  supposed  to  contain 
the  gravamen  of  their  accusation,  is : 
^'  That  the  magistrate  ought  not  to 
punish  the  breach  of  the  first  Table 
except  when  the  civil  peace  is  endan- 
gered." While  announcing  the  doctrine 
of  the  separation  of  Church  and  State, 
instead  of  being  ^'  a  disturber  of  the 
peace,"  he  is  represented  as  carefully 
guarding  it.  In  a  summary  of  tlie 
charges  against  liim,  prepared  by  Wil- 
liams himself  in  1644,  occurs  the  fol- 
lowing specification  :  "  That  the  civil 
magistrate's  power  extends  only  to  the 
bodies  and  goods  and  outward  state  of 
men."  Governor  Haynes  was  still  living, 
and  the  most  of  the  others  also  who  had 
had  a  hand  in  the  banishment ;  but  no 
denial  of  this  specification  was  ever  made. 

7* 


78  THREE   RHODE   ISLANDERS 

Attain  in  1652,  in  the  letter  of  AVil- 
liams  to  Governor  Endieott  —  already 
qnoted  —  which  Avas  occasioned  by  the 
cruel  treatment  of  these  peaceable  Rhode 
Island  visitors,  the  writer  says  :  "  x\t 
present  let  it  not  be  offensive  in  your 
eyes  that  I  single  out  another,  a  foui-th 
point,  a  cause  of  my  haiiishaent  alsOj 
wherein  I  greatly  fear  one  or  t^vo  sad 
evils  which  have  l^efallen  your  soul  and 
conscience ;  the  point  is  that  of  the  civil 
magistrate  dealing  in  matters  of  co?i- 
science  and  religion j  as  also  oi  jjerseeuting 
and  hunting  any  for  matters  merely  spir- 
itual or  religious.'' '  Notice  the  phrase 
"  a  cause  of  my  l)anishment  also,"  as  de- 
termining the  fact  that  the  same  spirit 
of  religious  persecution  which  whipped 
Holmes  banished  AVilliams. 

Moreover,  in  order  to  remove  all  ques- 
tion or  doubt,  if  anv  remain  in  the  minds 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  79 

of  any  persons,  as  to  the  cause  of  Wil- 
liams' banisliment,  and  to  establish  con- 
clusively the  fact  that  it  was  a  difference 
of  religious  opinion  that  made  him  ob- 
noxious to  the  Puritan  magistrates,  and 
that  it  Avas  religious  persecution  that 
drove  him  out  into  the  ^vilderness,  \ve 
may  cite  an  Act  passed  by  the  Council 
of  Massachusetts,  March  81st,  1676,  con- 
ditionally revoking  the  original  act  of 
banishment.  It  is  only  recently  that 
attention  has  l)een  called  to  this  act. 
It  Avas  published  by  Massachusetts  in 
1859  in  Vol.  11.  of  the  "Acts  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies." 
It  was  discovered  in  the  Massachusetts 
archives  after  the  printing  of  the  bod}' 
of  the  volume,  and  placed  in  the  Intro- 
duction, and  so  Avas  not  properly  in- 
dexed.    It  reads  as  follows  : 

''  AVhereas,  Mr.  Roger  AVilliams  stands 


W  THREE   RHODE  ISLANDERS 

at  present  under  a  sentence  of  Restraint 
from  coming  into  this  colony,  yet  con- 
sidering how  readyly  &  freely  at  all 
tymes  he  liath  served  the  English  In- 
terest in  this  time  of  warre  with  the 
Indians,  and  manifested  his  particular 
respects  to  the  authority  of  this  Colony 
in  several  services  desired  of  him,  and 
further  understanding  ho^v  by  the  last 
assault  of  the  Indians  upon  Providence 
his  house  is  l:)urned  and  himself  in  his 
old  age  reduced  to  an  uncomfortable 
and  disabled  state — Out  of  compassion 
to  him  in  this  condition  the  Council  doe 
Order  and  Declare  that  if  the  sayed  Mr. 
Williams  shall  see  cause  and  desire  it, 
he  sliall  have  liberty  to  repayre  into 
any  of  our  To^vns  for  liis  security  and 
comfortable  abode  during  these  Public 
Troubles,  he  behaving  himself  peaceably 
^uid  inoffensively  and  not  disseminating 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY  81 

and  venting  any  of  his  different  opinions 
in  matters  of  religion  to  the  dissatisfac- 
tion of  any." 

Forty  years  liad  gone  b}'.  Some  of 
the  actors  in  1686  had  undoubtedly — 
like  Williams  —  been  spared  to  1676. 
He  had  gone  out  of  their  borders,  l)ut 
not  out  of  their  kno^vledge  or  out  of 
their  necessity.  Twice  at  least,  l^y  his 
friendly  interposition  with  the  Indians, 
he  had  probably  saved  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Bay  from  annihilation.  He  had 
heaped  coals  of  fire  upon  their  heads. 
He  had  asked  the  privilege  of  simply 
crossing  tlieir  territory  on  the  way  to 
England,  and  had  been  refused.  He 
had  been  tlieir  neighbor,  but  Avas  still 
"feared  and  hated."  They  kept  him 
at  arm's  length,  lest  the  pestilential 
principles  Ashich  he  advocated  and  fos- 
tered across  the  line  should  infect  them. 


"82  THREE   RHODE  ISLANDERS 

John  AVintlirop,  ^vho  had  assented  to 
his  banishment,  had  indeed  shown  a 
disposition  to  recall  him,  and  to  "confer 
upon  him  some  mark  of  distinguished 
favor  for  his  services.""  But  adverse 
-counsels  long  prevailed,  until  at  length 
touched  to  some  slight  appreciation  of 
his  generous  and  self-sacrificing  ser\nces 
in  their  behalf,  and  to  some  slight  sym- 
pathy for  his  age  and  supposed  suffering 
and  poverty,  but  not  to  any  marked 
degree  of  penitence  for  their  past  con- 
duct, they  were  prompted  to  revoke  the 
act  of  banishment,  and  to  permit  him  to 
return  temporarily  "during  these  public 
troubles," — still,  however,  remembering 
the  nature  of  his  offence  by  adding  this 
significant  condition,  that  he  shall  "not 
disseminate  and  vent  any  of  his  differ- 
ent opinions  in  matters  of  religion." 
Dr.  Dexter,  whose  reputation  as  an  ex- 


IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  83 

plorer  of  colonial  literature  was  very 
great,  confessedly  ^vrote  his  monograph 
"  because  of  the  limited  accjuaintance  of 
s(mie  of  the  earliest  historians  ^Nith  the 
facts,"  and  because  they  did  not  go  back 
to  "the  only  original  authorities."  This 
act  of  revocation  must  have  escaped  this 
careful  and  boastfully  thorough  inves- 
tigator,—  or,  perhaps  we  should  come 
nearer  the  truth  if  we  said,  he  seems  to 
have  escaped  it.  As  a  revocation  it 
could  not  have  amounted  to  much  ta 
Roger  Williams,  for  we  cannot  conceive 
of  him  as  accepting  such  li])erty  at  the 
price  of  stifled  convictions,  and  as  sur- 
rendering the  priceless  principle  for 
which  he  had  once  suffered  the  loss  of 
all  things.  But  this  act  of  1676  ought 
to  settle  all  dispute  as  to  the  cause  of 
the  banishment  of  Roger  AVilliams,  and 
to  settle  it  forevei*. 


APPENDIXES 


APPENDIX  I 

Wan'ant  for  the  arrest  of  Clarice,  Jlohaes  and 
Crandall. 

"  By  virtue  hereof,  you  are  required  to  go 
to  the  house  of  AVilliam  AVitter,  and  so  to 
search  from  house  to  house,  for  certain  erro- 
nious  persons,  being  Strangers,  and  them  to 
apprehend,  and  in  safe  custody  to  keep,  and 
tomorrow  morning  by  eight  of  the  Clock  to 
bring  before  me. 

Egbert  Bridges." 

Co2)y  of  the  Mittimus. 

"  To  the  Keeper  of  the  Prison  at  Boston, 

By  virtue  hereof  you  are  required  to  take 
into  your  custody  from  the  Constable  of  Lin, 
or  his  Deputy,  the  bodies  of  John  Clark, 
Obediah  Holmes,  and  John  Crandall,  and 
them  to  keep,  untill  the  next  County  Court  to 


88  APPENDIX   I 

be  held  at  Boston,  that  they  may  then  and 
there  answer  to  such  comi^laints  as  may  be 
alleged  against  them,  for  being  taken  by  the 
Constable  at  a  Private  Meeting  at  Lin  upon 
the  Lords  day,  exercising  among  themselves, 
to  whom  divers  of  the  Town  repaired,  and 
joyned  with  them,  and  that  in  the  time  of 
Publick  exercise  of  the  Worship  of  God ;  as 
also  for  offensively  disturbing  the  peace  of 
the  Congi-egation  at  their  coming  into  the 
Publiqne  Meeting  in  the  time  of  Prayer  in 
the  afternoon,  and  for  saying  and  manifest- 
ing that  the  Church  of  Lin  was  not  consti- 
tuted according  to  the  order  of  our  Lord, 
<tc.,  for  such  other  things  as  shall  be  alleged 
against  them,  concerning  their  seducing  and 
drawing  aside  of  others  after  their  erroneous 
judgements  and  jiractices,  and  for  susjntion 
of  having  their  hands  in  the  re-baptizing  of 
one,  or  more  among  us,  as  also  for  neglecting 
or  refusing  to  give  in  sufficient  security  for 
their  appearance  at  the  said  Court;  hereof 
fail  not  at  your  perill,  22.  5.  51. 

EoB.  Bridges." 


APPENDIX   I  89 

The  sentence  of  Holmes,  (the  sentences  of  Clarke 
and  Crandall  v:ere  drawn  up  in  similar  lan- 
gi'.age,  there  heing  slight  variations  in  the 
accusations  and  the pencdties.) 

"  Forasmuch  as  you  Obecliah  Holmes,  l)eing 
come  into  this  Jurisdiction  about  the  21  of 
the  5th  M.  did  meet  at  one  AVilliam  Witters 
house  at  Lin,  and  did  hear  privately  (and  at 
other  times  being  an  Excommunicate  person 
did  take  upon  j'ou  to  Preach  and  to  Baptize) 
upon  the  Lords  daj^  and  other  dayes,  and 
being  taken  then  by  the  Constable,  and  coming 
afterwards  to  the  Assembly  at  Lin,  did  in  dis- 
respect of  the  Ordinance  of  God  and  his 
AVorship,  keep  on  your  hat,  the  Pastor  being 
in  Prayer,  insomuch  that  you  would  not  give 
reverence  in  veiling  your  hat,  till  it  Avas  forced 
off  your  head  to  the  disturbance  of  the  Con- 
gregation, and  professing  against  the  Insti- 
tution of  the  Church,  as  not  being  according 
to  the  Gospell  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  you 
the  said  Obediah  Holmes  did  upon  the  day 
following  meet  again  at  the  said  Williams 
Witters,  in  contempt  of  Authority,  you  being 

8* 


90  APPENDIX  I 

then  iu  the  custody  of  the  Law,  and  did  there 
receive  the  Sacrament,  being  Excommunicate, 
and  you  did  Baptize  such  as  were  Baptized 
before,  and  thereby  did  necessarily  deny  the 
Baptism  that  was  before  administered  to  be 
Bai)tism,  the  Churches  no  Churches,  and  also 
other  Ordinances,  and  Ministers,  as  if  all 
were  a  Nullity ;  And  also  did  deny  the  law- 
fullness  of  Baptizing  of  Infants,  and  all  this 
tends  to  the  dishonour  of  God,  the  despising 
the  ordinances  of  God  among  us,  the  peace 
of  the  Churches,  and  seducing  the  Subjects 
of  this  Commonwealth  from  the  truth  of  the 
"Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  perverting  the 
strait  waies  of  the  Lord,  the  Court  doth  fine 
you  30  pounds  to  be  paid,  or  sufficient  sure- 
ties that  the  said  sum  shall  be  paid  by  the 
first  day  of  the  next  Court  of  Assistants,  or 
else  to  be  Avell  whipt,  and  that  you  shall  re- 
main in  Prison  till  it  be  paid,  or  security  given 
in  for  it. 

By  the  Court, 

Enceease  Nowejj.." 


APPENDIX   II 

Extracts  from  the  letter  of  Jlohnes  to  friends 
in  London,  addressed — 

"Unto  the  well  l)eloYed  Brethren,  John 
Spilsbuiy,  AVilliam  Kift'en,  and  the  rest  that 
in  London  stand  fast  in  that  Faith,  and  con- 
tinue to  walk  stedfastly  in  that  Order  of  the 
Oospell  which  Avas  once  delivered  unto  the 
Saints  by  Jesns  Christ.  Obediah  Holmes  an 
unworthy  witness  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  and 
of  late  a  Prisoner  for  Jesus  sake  at  Boston, 
sendeth  greeting."  After  giving  an  account 
of  his  conversion,  change  of  religious  views 
and  arrest  by  the  Plymouth  court,  in  con- 
nection with  two  others,  all  of  whom  were 
severely  reprimanded  and  discharged  with- 
out punishment,  the  letter  continues — 

"  Not  long  after  these  troubles  I  came  upon 
occasion  of  businesse  into  the  Colony  of  the 


92  APPENDIX   II 

Matliatiisets,  with  two  other  Brethren,  as 
Brother  Clark,  being  one  of  the  two,  can  in- 
form you,  where  we  three  were  apprehended, 
canied  to  the  inison  at  Boston,  and  so  to  the 
Coiii-t,  and  were  all  sentenced;  what  they 
laid  to  my  charge,  you  may  here  read  in  my 
sentence :  Ypon  the  pronouncing  of  which  I 
went  from  the  Bar,  I  exprest  my  self  in  these 
words :  I  blesse  God  I  am  counted  worthy  to 
suffer  for  the  name  of  Jesus;  whereupon 
John  Wilson  (their  Pastor  as  they  call  him) 
strook  me  before  the  Judgement  Seat,  and 
cursed  me,  saying,  The  Curse  of  God  or 
Jesus  goe  with  thee;  so  we  were  canied  to 
the  Prison,  where  not  long  after  I  was  de- 
prived of  my  two  loving  Friends;  at  whose 
departure  the  Adversary  stept  in,  took  hold 
on  my  Spirit,  and  troubled  me  for  the  s^iace 
of  an  hour,  and  then  the  Lord  came  in,  and 
sweetly  releeved  me,  causing  me  to  look  to 
himself,  so  was  I  stayed,  and  refreshed  in  the 
thoughts  of  my  God;  and  although  during 
the  time  of  mj^  Imprisonment,  the  Tempter 
was  busie,  yet  it  pleased  God  so  to  stand  at 
mv  ris'ht  hand,  that  the  motions  were  but 


APPENDIX  II  93 

•sudden,  and  so  vanished  away ;  and  altlioiigh 
there  were  that  would  have  payd  the  money 
if  I  would  accept  it,  yet  I  durst  not  accept  of 
d-eliverance  in  such  a  way,  and  therefore  my 
answer  to  them  was,  that  although  I  would 
acknowledge  their  love  to  a  cup  of  cold 
"Water,  yet  could  I  not  thank  them  for  their 
money  if  they  should  pay  it:  so  the  Court 
di^w  n^er,  and  the  night  before  I  should 
suffer  according  to  my  sentence,  it  pleased 
Ood  I  rested  and  slept  quietly ;  in  the  morn- 
ing many  Friends  came  to  visit  me,  desiring 
me  to  take  the  refreshment  of  Wine,  and 
other  Comforts,  but  my  resolution  was  not 
to  drink  Wine,  nor  strong  drink  that  day 
untill  my  punishment  were  over,  and  the 
reason  was,  lest  in  case  I  had  more  strength, 
courage  and  boldnesse  than  ordinarily  could 
be  expected,  the  YYorld  should  either  say  he 
is  drunk  with  new  YYine,  or  else  that  the 
comfort  and  strength  of  the  Creature  hath 
carried  him  through,  but  my  course  was  this : 
I  desired  Brother  John  Hazell  to  bear  my 
Friends  company,  and  I  betook  myself  to  my 
Chamber,  where  I  might  communicate  with 


^4  APPEKDIX  II 

my  God,  commit  myself  to  him,  and  beg 
strengtli  from  him 

And  when  I 

heard  the  voyce  of  my  Keeper  come  for  me, 
even  cheerfulnesse  did  come  upon  me,  and 
taking  my  Testament  in  my  hand,  I  went 
along  with  him  to  the  i^lace  of  execution,  and 
after  common  salutation  there  stood ;  there 
stood  by  also  one  of  the  Magistrates,  by 
name  Mr.  Encrease  Nowell,  who  for  a  while 
kept  silent,  and  spoke  not  a  word,  and  so  did 
I,  expecting  the  Governors  presence,  but  he 
came  not.  But  after  a  while  Mr.  Nowell  bad 
the  Executioner  doe  his  Office,  then  I  desired 
to  speak  a  few  words,  but  Mr.  Nowell  an- 
swered, it  is  not  now  a  time  to  speak,  where- 
upon I  took  leave,  [permission]  and  said, 
Men,  Brethren,  Fathers,  and  Countrey-men, 
I  beseech  you  give  me  leave  to  speak  a  few 
words,  and  the  rather,  because  here  are  many 
Spectators  to  see  me  i:)unished,  and  I  am  to 
seal  with  my  Blood,  if  God  give  me  strength, 
that  which  I  hold  and  practise  in  reference 
to  the  AVord  of  God,  and  the  testimony  of 


APPENDIX   II  95 

Jesus ;  that  which  I  have  to  say  in  brief  is 
this,  Althouo^h  I  confesse  I  am  no  Disputant, 
yet  seeing  I  am  to  seal  what  I  hokl  with  my 
Blood,  I  am  ready  to  defend  it  by  the  Word, 
and  to  dispute  that  point  with  any  that  shall 
come  forth  to  withstand  it.  Mr.  Nowell  an- 
swered me,  now  was  no  time  to  dispute,  then 
said  I,  then  I  desire  to  give  an  account  of  the 
Faith  and  Order  I  hold,  and  this  I  desired 
three  times,  but  in  comes  Mr.  Flint,  and  saith 
to  the  Executioner,  Fellow,  doe  thine  Office, 
for  this  fellow  would  but  make  a  long  Speech 

to  delude  the  people 

And  in  the  time 

of  his  pulling  of  my  cloathes  I  continued 
speaking,  telling  them,  That  I  had  so  learned, 
that  for  all  Boston,  I  would  not  give  my 
bodie  into  their  hands  thus  to  be  bruised 
upon  another  account,  yet  upon  this  I  would 
not  give  the  hundredth  part  of  a  Warnpon 
Peayue  to  free  it  out  of  their  hands,  and  that 
I  made  as  much  Conscience  of  unbuttonine- 
one  button,  as  I  did  of  paying  the  301.  in 
reference  thereunto  ;  I  told  them  moreover, 
the  Lord  having  manifested  his  love  towards 


96  APPENDIX   II 

me,  in  giving  me  repentance  towards  God^ 
and  faith  in  Jesus  Clirist,  and  so  to  be  bap- 
tized in  water  by  a  Messenger  of  Jesus  into 
the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit, 
wherein  I  have  fellowship  \\dth  him  in  his 
death,  buriall,  and  resurrection,  I  am  now 
come  to  be  baptized  in  afflictions  by  your 
hands,  that  so  I  may  have  further  fellowship 
with  my  Lord,  and  am  not  ashamed  of  his 
suffeiings,  for  by  his  stripes  am  I  healed ;. 
And  as  the  man  began  to  lay  the  stroaks 
upon  my  back,  I  said  to  the  people,  though 
my  Flesh  should  fail,  and  my  Spirit  should 
fail,  yet  God  would  not  fail ;  so  it  pleased  the- 
Lord  to  come  in,  and  so  to  fill  my  heart  and 
tongue  as  a  vessell  full,  and  T\ith  an  audible- 
voyce  I  broke  forth,  praying  unto  the  Lord 
not  to  lay  this  Sin  to  their  charge,  and  tell- 
ing the  people,  That  now  I  found  he  did  not 
fail  me,  and  therefore  now  I  should  trust  him 
forever  who  failed  me  not ;  for  in  truth,  as 
the  stroaks  fell  upon  me,  I  had  such  a  spirit- 
uall  manifestation  of  God's  presence,  as  the 
like  thereunto  I  never  had,  nor  felt,  nor  can 
with  fleshly  tongue  expresse,  and  the  outward 


APPENDIX  II  97 

pain  Avas  so  removed  from  me,  that  indeed  I 
am  not  able  to  declare  it  to  yon,  it  was  so  easie 
to  me,  that  I  conld  well  bear  it,  yea  and  in  a 
manner  felt  it  not,  although  it  was  grievous, 
as  the  Spectators  said,  the  Man  striking  with 
all  his  strength  (yea  spitting  on  his  hand 
three  times,  as  many  affirmed)  with  a  three- 
coarded  whip,  giving  me  therewith  thirty 
stroaks ;  when  he  had  loosed  me  from  the 
Post,  having  joyfulnesse  in  my  heart,  and 
cheerfulnesse  in  my  countenance,  as  the 
Spectators  observed,  I  told  the  Magistrates, 
you  have  struck  me  as  with  Roses ;  and  said 
moreover.  Although  the  Lord  hath  made  it 
easie  to  me,  yet  I  pray  God  it  may  not  be 
laid  to  your  charge.  After  this  many  came 
to  me,  rejoycing  to  see  the  power  of  the  Lord 
manifested  in  weak  flesh ;  but  sinfull  flesh 
takes  occasion  hereby  to  bring  others  in 
trouble,  informs  the  Magistrates  hereof,  and 
so  two  more  are  apprehended  as  for  contempt 
of  authority,  there  names  were  John  Hazell 
and  John  Spur,  who  came  indeed  and  did 
shake  me  l^y  the  hand,  but  did  use  no  words 
of  contempt  or  reproach  unto  any ;   no  man 


98  APPENDIX   II 

can  prove  that  the  first  spoke  any  tiling,  and 
for  tlie  second,  lie  only  said  thus,  Blessed  be 
the  Lord  ;  j^et  these  two  for  taking  me  by  the 
hand,  and  thus  sajring  after  I  had  received 
my  punishment,  were  sentenced  to  pay  40 
shillings,  or  to  be  whipt.  Both  were  resolved 
against  paying  their  Fine  :  Nevertheless  after 
one  or  two  dayes  imprisonment,  one  payed 
John  Spurs  Fine,  and  he  was  released,  and 
after  six  or  seven  dayes  Imprisonment  of 
Brother  Hazell,  even  the  day  when  he  should 
have  suffered  an  other  payed  his,  and  so  he 
escaped,  and  the  next  day  went  to  visit  a 
Friend  about  6  miles  from  Boston,  w^here  he 
the  same  day  fell  sick,  and  within  10  dayes 
he  ended  this  life ;  when  I  was  come  to  the 
Prison,  it  pleased  God  to  stir  up  the  heart  of 
an  old  acquaintance  of  mine,  who  with  much 
tendernesse,  like  the  good  Samaritan,  poured 
oyl  into  my  wound,  and  plaistered  my  sores ; 
but  there  was  present  information  given  what 
was  done,  and  inquiry  made  avIio  was  the 
Chirurgion,  and  it  was  commonly  reported  he 
should  be  sent  for,  but  what  was  done,  I  j^et 
know   not.     Now  thus  it  hath  pleased  the 


APPENDIX   II  99 

Father  of  Mercies  so  to  dispose  of  the  matter, 
that  my  Bonds  and  Imprisonments  have  been 
no  hinderance  to  the  Gospel,  for  before  my 
return,  some  submitted  to  the  Lord,  and  were 
baptized,  and  divers  were  put  upon  the  way 
of  enquiry  ;  And  now  beino-  adA'ised  to  make 
my  escape  by  night,  because  it  was  reported 
that  there  were  Wan-ants  forth  for  me,  I  de- 
parted :  and  the  next  day  after,  while  I  was 
on  my  Journey,  the  Constable  came  to  search 
at  the  house  where  I  lodged,  so  I  escaped 
their  hands,  and  was  by  the  good  hand  of  my 
heavenly  Father  brought  home  again  to  my 
neer  relations,  my  wife,  and  eight  children, 
the  Brethren  of  our  Town  and  Providence 
having  taken  pains  to  meet  me  4  miles  in  the 
woods,  where  we  rejoyced  together  in  the 
Lord.  Thus  have  I  given  you  as  biiefly  as  I 
can,  a  true  relation  of  things  :  wherefore  my 
Brethren,  rejoyce  Avith  me  in  the  Lord,  and 
give  all  glory  to  him,  for  he  is  worth}',  to 
whom  be  praise  for  evermore,  to  whom  I 
commit  you,  and  put  up  my  earnest  prayers 
for  you,  that  by  my  late  experience,  who 
have  trusted  in  God,  and  have  not  been  de- 


100  APPENDIX   II 

ceived,  you  may  trust  in  liim  perf  ectlj^ :  where- 
fore my  dearly  beloved  Brethren  trust  in  the 
Lord,  and  you  shall  not  be  ashamed,  nor 
confounded,  so  I  also  rest. 

Yours  in  the  bond  of  Charity, 

Obediah  Holmes." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  AND  INDEX 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Acts  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United 
Colonies,  Vol.  II. 

Address  at  the  Unveiling  of  the  Statue 
of  Roger  Williams  in  Providence,  by 
Prof.  J.  L.  DiinHD. 

Allen's  Biographical  Dictionary— (Sketch 
of  John  Clarke). 

Annals  of  the  Baptist  Pulpit— (Sketch  of 
John  Clarke),  by  Wm.  B.  Sprague,  D.D. 

As  to  Roger  Williams,  by  Henry  M.  Dex- 
ter, D.D. 

Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States, 
Vols.  I  and  II. 

Baptist  Quarterly,  Vol.  X.  Article  by  C. 
E.  Barrows,  D.D. 

Bryant's  Popular  History  of  the  United 
States,  Vol.  II,  by  William  C.  Bryant 
and  Sidney  H.  CTa3\ 


10^  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Historical  Discourse,  by  Eev.  John  Callen- 
der. 

History  of  the  Baptists,  Vol.  I,  by  Isaac 
Backus. 

History  of  the  Baptists,  by  Thomas  Armi- 
tage,  D.D. 

History  of  the  Baptists  in  New  England, 
by  Henry  S.  BuiTage,  D.D. 

History  of  the  Baptists  in  the  United 
States,  by  Prof.  Alliert  H.  Newman, 
D.D. 

History  of  Lynn,  by  Alonzo  Le^-is. 

History  of  Lynn,  by  Lewis  and  Newhall. 

History  of  New  England,  Vol.  H,  by  John 
G.  Palfrey,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

History  of  Massachusetts,  First  Period, 
l)y  J.  L.  Barry. 

History  of  Rhode  Island,  Vol.  I,  by  Samuel 
Greene  Ai'nold. 

Hubbard's  History  of  New  England. 


BIBLIOGPiAPHY  105 

Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts. 

Hutchinson's  Collection  of  Original  Pa- 
pers. 

Life  of  Roger  Williams,  in  Sparks'  Am. 
JBiography,  New  Series,  Yol.  lY,  1)3^  Prof. 
William  Oammell. 

Life  of  Roger  Williams,  by  Romeo  Elton, 
D.D. 

Massachusetts  Archives,  Vol.  H. 

Massachusetts  Historical  Collections, 
Vol.  n.  Fourth  Series. 

Massachusetts,  Its  Historians  and  Its 
History,  by  diaries  Francis  Adams. 

Massachusetts  Records,  Vol.  III. 

Memoir  of  Roger  Williams,  by  Prof.  James 
D.  Knowles. 

Morton's  Memorial. 

Neal's  History  of  New  England. 

Newport  Church  Papers,  compiled  by  Rev. 
John  Comer. 


106  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Plymouth  Records,  Vol.  II. 

Puritan  Commonwealth,  by  Peter  Oliver. 

Rhode  Island  Colonial  Records,  Vol.   I. 

Roger  Williams,  the  Pioneer  of  Religioij^ 
Liberty,  by  Oscar  S.  Straus. 

Savage's   Genealogical   Dictionary,   Vol. 

IV— (Sketcli  of  William  AVitter). 

Short   History  of  the   Baptists,   by  Prof. 
Henry  C.  Tedder. 

The  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts,  by 

Brooks  Adams. 

Winthrop's  Journal,  Vol.  II. 


INDEX 

A. 

Adams,  Brooks,  61. 

Anabaptism,  charge  of,  against  The  Three  Rhode 
Islanders,  50,  52  ;  charge  of,  against  Roger  "Wil- 
liams, 74  ;  meaning  of,  75,  76  ;  confession  of  faith 
of,  (1611),  75. 

Anabaptists,  27;  persecutions  of,  71. 

Aiitinoiniaiis,  71. 

Arnold's  "History  of  Rhode  Island"  :  as  to  the 
visit,  12  ;  as  to  whipping  of  Holmes,  61  ;  as  to 
Roger  Williams,  76. 

B. 

Backus'  "History  of  the  Baptists,"  11,  41. 
Bancroft's  "History  of  the  United  States":   as  to 

the  character  of  Clarke,  24  ;   as  to  whipping  of 

Holmes,  61. 
Baptism,  Infant :    Witter's  opinion  of,  12  ;  law  of 

1644  concerning.  20,  34. 
Baptists,  hostility  to,  by  Massachusetts,  19,  21,  33, 

38,  45. 


108  INDEX 

Boston,  Court  of,  35. 
Brewster,  Elder,  74. 
Bridg-es,  Robert,  47,  87,  88. 


Callender,  Rev.  John  :  as  to  whipping  of  Hohnes^ 
61  :  as  to  Chirke,  67  (foot  note). 

Catabaptist,  ■■)2. 

Cliurcli  of  England,  71. 

Clarke,  Dr.  John  :  date  of  his  visit  to  Witter.  7  ; 
object  of  visit,  according  to  Backus,  11  ;  to  Ar- 
nold, 12  ;  in  his  own  "111  Xewes  from  New  Eng- 
land," 13  ;  according  to  Dr.  Palfrey,  14,  19-22  ; 
errors  of  Dr.  Palfrc}'  noted,  23-25  ;  real  reason 
for  leaving  Massachusetts,  23  :  character  of,  by 
Bancroft,  24  ;  Assistant  in  the  government,  25  ; 
object  of  visit,  according  to  Dr.  Dexter,  27  ;  sent 
to  secure  rescinding  of  Coddington's  Commission, 
36  ;  a  republican,  39  ;  statement  of,  before  enter- 
ing church  at  Swampscott,  48  (foot  note) ;  own 
account  of  visit  to  Mr.  Witter,  46,  47,  49  ;  charges- 
against,  49,  50  ;  trial  of,  51-53  ;  sentence  of,  53  •„ 
fine  paid,  54,  55  ;  character  of,  by  John  Callender, 
67  (foot  note) ;  item  from  will  of,  67  (foot  note)  ;: 
death  of,  67  (foot  note) ;  pastor  of  Newport  Bap- 
tist Church,  67  ;  treatment  of  the  visit  of,  sympto- 
matic of  prevailing  religious  spirit.  70-73. 


DsDEX  109 

Coddiiigtoii,  William  :  desires  union  with  ]Massa- 
cliusetts  or  Plymouth,  lo,  16  :  president  of  Provi- 
dence Plantations,  14 ;  application  of,  for  union 
with  colonies,  17 ;  obtains  commission,  17-19 ; 
commission  of,  the  occasion  of  the  visit  of  the 
three  Rhode  Islanders,  according  to  Dr.  Palfrey, 
19  ;  conmiission  vacated,  36  ;  its  purpose,  36-38  ; 
Dr.  Dexter's  account  of  procuring  of  commis- 
sion of,  26,  27  ;  refutation  of  Dr.  Dexter's  view, 
28-32  ;  opposition  to,  36.  39,  40. 

Colonies,  confederation  of,  14,  15  ;  Commissioners 
of,  16,  17  ;  as  to  introduction  of  Rhode  Island 
into,  17,  27,  29,  32,  35-37;  as  to  union  of  New- 
port and   Portsmouth  with,  14. 

Comer,  John,  42. 

Conauieut,  18,  26. 

Cotton,  John  ;  as  to  Clarke's  fine  and  Holmes'  whip- 
ping, 55.  (foot  note,)  69. 

Council  of  State  :  gives  commission  to  Coddington, 
18,  26  ;  rescinds  same,  36  ;  first  meeting  of,  30,  3U 

Councilors  of  Rhode  Island  and  Conanicut,  18. 

Court  of  Boston,  35. 

Crandall,  John  :   date  of  visit  to  Witter,  7  ;  object 
of  visit,  see  under  Clarke  ;  as  Commissioner  for 
Newport,  22  ;  sentence  of,  53  ;  trial  of,  51-53  ;  his 
fine  paid,  54,  55. 
10 


110  INDEX 


D. 


Dexter,  Dr.  H.  M.  :  author  of  "  As  to  Roger  Wil- 
liams," 8  ;  disciple  of  Dr.  Palfrey,  25  ;  bis  account 
of  the  visit  to  Witter,  26  ;  errors  of  his  view, 
28-32 ;  throws  discredit  on  Newport  Church 
Papers,  41,  42;  view  of,  on  Witter's  age,  43; 
his  interpretation  of  Clarke's  own  statement  as 
to  object  of  the  visit,  45  ;  his  interpretation  of 
payment  of  Clarke's  fine,  55  ;  his  account  of 
Holmes'  whipping,  61  ;  as  an  historical  authority, 
64  ;  failure  of,  to  see  act  of  revocation  of  Roger 
Williams,  83  :  criticism  of,  64-66. 

Diiiian,  J.  L.,  72. 

**  Disturber  of  the  peace"  :   meaning  of,  70,  78,  77. 

E. 

Eastou,  Nicholas,  89. 

Ellis,  Dr.  Geo.  E.,  72. 

Endieott,  Gov.  John  :  at  trial  of  the  three  Rhode 
Islanders,  52,  53,  64,  65  ;  letter  to,  from  Roger 
Williams  concerning  punishment  of  Clarke,  69, 
78. 


Gay,  Sidney  H.,  61. 
Haynes,  Gov.,  77. 


G. 


H. 


INDEX  111 

Hazel,  John,  65,  97,  98. 

Historian,  duty  of,  10. 

Holmes,  Obadiah  :  date  of  visit  of,  to  Witter,  7  ; 
object  of  visit,  see  under  Clarke  ;  letter  of,  to 
John  Spilsbuiy,  13,  91-100  ;  trial  of,  at  Plymouth, 
3o,  53:  trial  of,  at  Boston,  51-53;  sentence,  53;  copy 
of  sentence,  89  ;  excommunicated  from  church  at 
Rehoboth.  53  ;  fine  of,  54,  57  ;  whipping  of,  57-66  ; 
his  own  account  of  the  whipping,  57-60  ;  accounts 
of  Gov.  Jenckes,  Dr.  Dexter,  Dr.  Clarke,  Dr.  Pal- 
frey, 61,  61-64,  61-62,  62-64  ;  criticism  of  Dexter's 
account,  64-66;  pastor  of  Newport  Baptist  church, 
68  ;  opinions  as  to  his  punishment,  68-70  ;  life  of. 
68  (foot  note) ;  extracts  from  letter  of,  concerning 
his  punishment,  91. 

Hubbard,  Samuel  :  "History  of  1680,"  42,  66. 

Hutchinson,  Gov.  :  "History  of  Massachusetts," 67. 

J. 

James  I.,  71. 

Jenekes,  Gov.  Joseph,  56  (foot  note),  61. 

Johnson's  "  History  of  1654,"  66. 

K. 

Kitten,  William,  13,  91. 

L. 

Lewis  and  Newhall's  "History  of  Lynn."  12. 


112  INDEX 


31. 


Massacliusetts,  or  Massachusetts  Bay  :  as  to  an- 
nexation of  Rhode  Island  with,  14,  27,  29,  32,  38, 
39  :  General  Court  of,  22,  38,  39  ;  hostility  of,  to- 
ward Baptists,  seen  in  its  remonstrance  at  time 
of  sentence  of  Holmes  at  Plymouth,  and  in 
Clarke's  leaving  Massachusetts,  22,  24,  26,  53  and 
54  ;  services  of  Roger  Williams  to,  81  ;  Act  of.  in 
1676,  revoking  banishment  of  Roger  Williams, 
79-81,  83. 

Mather,  Cotton:  "History  of  1702,-  66. 

3Iiltoii,  John,  76. 

Mittimus  :  contents  of  the,  49,  50  ;  copy  of  the,  87. 

Morton's  "New  England  Memorial,"  66. 


NeAvliaH,  see  Lewis. 

Newport  :   as  to  its  union  with  the  Colonies,   14 
Coddington,  as  governor  of,  19  ;    requesting 
scinding  of  Coddington's  commission,  36. 

Newport  Baptist  Church,  7,  11,  28. 

Newport  Church  Papers.  41,  42. 

Nowell,  Encrease,  90. 


re 


P. 

Painter,  Thomas,  34. 


INDEX  113 

Palfrey,  Dr.- J.  G.  :  author  of  "  History  of  New  Eni,^- 
land,"  8  :  purpose  of  the  visit  of  The  Three  Rhode 
Islanders,  13,  14  ;  views  of.  on  Coddington's  letter 
to  Winthrop,  15  ;  theory  of,  as  to  the  visit  to 
Witter,  19-22  ;    errors  of  his  view,  23-2o. 

Partridge,  Alexander,  17. 

Pattisoii,  Mark,  75. 

Pedobaptist,  52. 

**  Petition  and  Remonstrance"  against  Law  of  1044, 
34. 

Plynioutli :  as  to  union  of  Rhode  Island  with,  15-17  ; 
trial  of  Holmes  at,  22,  35,  53. 

Plymouth,  Church  at  :  its  dismissal  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams, 74. 

Portsnioiitli :  as  to  its  union  with  Colonial  Confed- 
eracy, 14  ;  Coddington,  supreme  ruler  of,  19  ; 
signing  attempt  to  rescind  Coddington's  commis- 
sion, 36. 

Providence:  alienation  of  Coddington  from.  16; 
separation  of,  from  Rhode  Island,  37. 

Providence  Plantations:  local  disagreements  of.  14; 
charter  to  Roger  Williams  for  incorporation  of, 
15  ;  charter  set  aside,  18  ;  division  of,  19  ;  division 
of,  sought  by  Coddington,  37  ;  division  of,  resisted, 
39. 

Pnritan.s  :  as  to  judgment  of,  8,  9  ;  religious  attitude 
of.  70-73. 

10* 


114  INDEX 

Q. 

Quakers,  Tl. 

R. 

Keliobotli,  53 

llliocle  Island  :  separate  governmeut  of,  established, 
18;  Coddington,  governor  of,  26;  unseliled  con- 
dition of.  26  :  as  to  proposed  introduction  of.  into 
Colonial  Confederacy,  29  :  introduction  of,  not 
purpose  of  Coddington,  32,  36,  37  ;  separated  from 
Providence  and  WarAvick.  87  ;  intoleraT)le  to  Bo>;- 
ton,  38. 

Rhode  Island  Plantations,  26. 


S. 

Salem  :  Church  of.  74. 

Saltoustall,  Sir  Richard  :  Cotton's  letter  to.  55  ^foot 

note) :  opinion  of,  on  punishment  of  Holmes   68, 

69. 
Selileitliheiui  :  confession  of  faith  issued  at.  75. 
Smitli,  Edward,  42. 
Smyth,  John,  74. 
Spilsbiiry,  John,  13,  91. 
Spur,  John,  65,  97,  98. 
Straus,  Oscar  S.,  61. 


INDEX  115 


w. 


Warrant  lor  the  arrest  of  Clarke,  Holmes  and  Cran- 
dall,  87. 

Warwick:  alienation  of  Coddington  from,  16;  sep- 
arated from  Rhode  Island,  87. 

W^illiaiiis,  Roger  :  charter  to,  for  incorporation  of 
the  Providence  Plantations,  15,  16  ;  banishment 
of,  24  ;  sent  to  gain  the  rescinding  of  Coddington's 
commission,  36  :  letter  of,  concerning  treatment 
of  Holmes,  69,  70  ;  cause  of  banishment  of,  made 
clear  by  treatment  of  The  Three  Rhode  Islanders, 
76-83;  seen  in  Arnold's  estimate,  76;  in  charges 
at  time  of  banishment,  and  in  his  own  statement, 
77  ;  established  conclusively  in  Act  revoking  his 
banishment,  79-83. 

Wilson,  John  :  at  trial  of  Holmes,  53,  65  ;  rebuked 
by  Saltonstall,  69. 

Winslow,  Gov.,  34. 

Wiutlirop,  John  :  letters  to,  from  Coddington,  15, 
16  ;  desire  of,  to  recall  Roger  Williams,  82. 

Witter,  William  :  visit  of  The  Three  Rhode  Islanders 
to,  7  ;  object  of  the  visit,  i<ee  under  Clarke  ;  ar- 
raignment of,  for  holding  Baptist  views,  28,  34 ; 
time  of  visit  to,  31  ;  summary  of  evidence  against 
a  political  purpose  of  the  visit,  33-45  ;  real  reason 
for  the  visit,  42-44  ;  age  of,  43. 


PUBLICATIONS 


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History  of  the  State   of    Rhode  Island 

and  Providence  Plantations, 

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Governor  Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island,  based  upon  a 
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"The  best  history  of  Rhode  Island  is  that  of  Arnold."  —  Prof. 
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Tax  Lists  of  the  Town  of  Providence 

During  the  Administration  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
and  his  Council, 

J  686- 1 689. 

Compiled  by  EDWARD  FIELD,  A.B., 

Member  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  and  one  of  the 
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The  "  Tax  Lists  of  the  Town  of  Providence"  is  a  compilation 
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comprises  copies  of  warrants  issued  by  order  of  the  Council  for 
the  assessment  and  collection  of  taxes,  the  tax  lists  or  rate  bills 
prepared  pursuant  to  these  warrants,  the  returns  made  by  the 
townsmen  of  their  ratable  property,  and  the  Tax  Laws  enacted 
by  Andros  and  his  Council.  All  of  these,  with  the  exception 
of  the  laws,  are  here  printed  for  the  first  time. 

Among  tlie  rate  bills  is  the  list  of  polls  for  1688,  which  con- 
tains the  names  of  all  males  sixteen  years  of  age  and  upwards 
living  in  Providence  in  August  of  that  year  ;  practically  a  census 
of  the  town.  For  the  genealogist  and  historian  this  volume  con- 
tains material  of  the  greatest  value  on  account  of  the  great  num- 
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more  valuable  or  moie  interesting  than  the  architecture.  Noth- 
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the  knowied^je  of  how  they  planned  and  built  their  dwellings. 

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Rhode  Island  colonists,  the  striking  individuality  in  the  work 
of  the  colony  and  the  wide  difference  between  the  buildings 
here  and  the  contemporary  dwelling  in  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut. 

Those  interested  in  colonial  life  may  here  look  into  the  early 
homes  of  Rhode  Island  with  their  cavernous  fireplaces  and 
enormous  beams.  The  student  will  find  in  these  old  examples 
a  valuable  commentary  on  New  England  history,  while  the 
architect  will  discover  in  the  measurements  and  analyses  of 
construction  much  of  professional  interest. 

Among  the  houses  described  are  the  Smith  Garrison  House 
and  the  homesteads  of  the  families  of  Fenner,  OInev,  Field, 
Crawford,  Waterman,  Mowry,  Arnold,  Whipple,  and  Manton. 

A  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  early  houses  of  Newport,  which 
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only  exact  records  for  a  class  of  buildings  which  is  destined  to 
disappear  at  no  distant  day.  It  is  believed  that  these  drawings, 
and  especially  the  restorations,  will  give  a  clearer  idea  than  has 
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mentioned  in  the  text. 

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Revolutionary  Defences  in  Rhode  Island, 


An  Historical  Account  of  the  Forts  and  Heacons  erected  during 
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Centennial  Celebration  of  Rhode  Island's  Adoption 

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character,  and  become  an  integral  part  of  an  indissolu- 
ble nation,  is  made  in  such  form  that  it  should  be  the 
end  of  controversy,  and  the  future  student  of  history 
should  require  no  further  material  for  a  just  and  dis- 
criminating conclusion. 

7 


MARY  DYER 

Or  Khode  Island,  The  Quaker  Martyr  that  was 
Hanged  on  Boston  Common,  June  1,  1660. 


By  HORATIO  ROGERS,  Associate  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Rhode  Island. 


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adding  a  brief  but  comprehensive  sketch  of  the 
manner  and  sentiments  of  her  times,  he  has  fur- 
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volume  by  enabling  the  reader,  the  better  to 
understand  the  suiToundings  of  the  characters 
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BY  GERTRUDE  SELWYN  KIMBALL. 

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Topographical  atlas 


STATE  OF  RHODE  ISLAND   AND  PROVIDENCE 
PLANTATIONS. 


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for  $3.50. 

The  plates  of  this  Atlas  were  eugraved  upou  copper  iu  the  high- 
est style  of  cartographic  engraving  by  the  Uuited  States  Govern- 
ment and  furnished  lo  tb"  State.  From  these  plates  trausfers  were 
made  io  stone  and  the  maps  printed  in  four  colors,  viz  :  The  names, 
roads,  railroads  and  otber  culture  features  are  in  black.  Rivers, 
ponds,  -wamps  and  other  water  features  are  in  blue.  Contour  lines 
and  figures  denoting  elevation  are  in  hrmon.  State,  county  and 
town  boundaries  are  iu  pink  over  the  more  'xact  boundaries  in  black 
or  blue. 

Besides  showing  all  bodies  of  water  and  watercourses,  common 
roads  or  highways  and  railroads,  it  has  one  feature  distinct  from 
and  superior  to  any  map  of  the  State  hitherto  published,  viz: 
Contour  lines,  drawn  for  each  20  feet  of  elevation  above  mean  sea 
level.  Figures  are  jjlaced  upon  the  heavier  conto\ir  lines  which 
denote  elevations  of  100  feet,  200  feet,  etc.,  above  mean  sea  level, 
also  upon  hills  and  bodies  of  water  to  denote  their  elevation.  A 
contour  line  indicating  20  feet  depth  of  water  be!ow  mean  sea  level 
is  drawn  along  the  coast.  In  a  few  cases  figures  are  given  to  in- 
dicate depths  of  water  of  less  than  20  feet. 

This  Atlas  includes  12  maps  and  10  pages  index  and  statistics 
in  all  22  sheets  21x16 'a.  The  scale  of  the  survey  is  15-^5- r^TfTT  °^  °"^ 
mile  to  an  inch. 


n 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


-^ 


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INTERLIBRARY  LOANS 

NOV  24  1970 


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